Spring Sting
by Tinni93
Summary: PRJF - Love is in the air in Ocean Bluff and the rangers are about to attend a formal dance. But Dai Shi's newest wasp monster has different plans for them. Will the rangers survive long enough to make it to that special night?
1. Love is in the Air

_**Spring Sting**_

**Disclaimer: ****I do not own Power Rangers in any way, shape or form. ^_^**

It was a warm spring day in Ocean Bluff. The sun hung high and happy in the cerulean colored sky. Pretty flowers bloomed all around the town. The fragrance of flowers filled the air with its bouquet. Another smell filled the air at the same time—pizza. JKP was full with people both young and old craving the saucy goodness. It was more people than they usually seemed to get this time of year. The reason? Ocean Bluff had an annual formal ball coming up called 'Bring in the Spring'. Every year, people from other towns and cities ventured here to attend.

A sign hung high in the middle of Ocean Bluff Square. It was a banner covered in flowers and cute little bee drawings that read: _'The annual Ocean Bluff formal 'Bring in the Spring' coming in three days!'_ People were eager for the three days to finally be over so they could go to this spectacular event. It was a happy spring day.

The rangers were busy as usual tending to the wave of customer after customer. Everyone seemed to be in a pleasant mood due to the beautiful weather. The line at Jungle Karma Pizza went out the door. Lily had her hands full at the register, Casey and Dominic served and bused the food, Fran took the orders, and RJ and Theo baked the pizzas—and very quickly at that. Casey had his hands full of plates, cups and trays as he busted through the kitchen doors, making it just in time to heave the dishes in the sink.

"RJ, we've got a problem!" he said catching his breath from all of the rushing.

RJ sprinkled flour over the ball of pizza dough in front of him. "Well, lay it on me Case."

"We're all out of seats out there and the customers just keep pouring in." Casey explained hoping RJ could solve his dilemma.

RJ paused and looked up from the dough. "Bummer." He sighed, "This really _is _a problem. I don't want anybody leaving here until they've tried my pizza masterpieces." He continued sadly.

In the next moment, Dominic busted through the kitchen doors bombarded with dishes as well. He did as Casey did and placed them into the sink, which was already piled high. "Big trouble, RJ," he began, "There's not enough-"

"I-I know. We have limited seating." RJ said cutting him off. "But what to do?" he said tapping his finger against his chin, not realizing that he was getting flour all over himself. Casey, Theo and Dominic all stifled their laughter. RJ looked at them and realized what they were laughing at. "Oh, flour beard, ha ha." He laughed wiping the flour off with a rag.

"Hey, I know!" Theo interjected, "How about we seat the rest of the people outside? There _are___tables there, they just need to be wiped down."

Dominic and Casey nodded in agreement. RJ looked pleased with Theo's idea, for this meant he wasn't going to lose any customers.

"Good thinking, Theo!" RJ said happily, "Casey, Dom, clean the tables out there then beginning seating out customers. We're lucky it's such a lovely day." RJ said going back to preparing the dough.

Dominic walked over to a cabinet and pulled out two rags, handing one to Casey. "Why have there been so many customers lately? It's been this way for a week." Dominic groaned.

"I can answer that, the big spring dance is coming up in a few days. It's really fancy like a prom, where people dress up and celebrated the season." Casey chimed in.

"And have you asked Lily to go with you yet?" RJ asked mischievously.

Casey's eyes got wide and he grew embarrassed. "I'm going to…go wipe down those tables. See ya." He said as he bolted out of the room in a flash.

"That would be a 'No'." Dominic laughed.

"I'll say." Theo chuckled, placing bananas on a 'Thrilla Gorilla' pizza.

"So, Dom…are you going to ask Fran?" RJ asked now making Dominic embarrassed.

Dominic played with the rag in his hands. "Not yet. You think she'd say yes?" he asked nervously.

This made Theo stop cold. "Are you joking? She'd probably start getting ready immediately after you asked her." It was that obvious to Theo that the two were crazy about each other and was both to shy to say.

"Well, that settles it!" Dominic said standing up tall and confident, throwing the rag into the air and catching it, "I'll ask her tonight!" Then he threw open the doors happily and went to go help Casey.

RJ chuckled as he began to roll out the dough with a rolling pin. "Love sure is in the air." Then he looked to Theo. "So, Theo, who's the lucky lady that you're escorting to the dance and does she have a friend?" RJ laughed.

"Oh, me? I'm not going with anybody. I'm running the music. If I had a date she'd just feel ignored." Theo said.

"Theo the DJ—has a nice ring to it." RJ said cheerfully.

"What about you, RJ? Do _you _have a date?" Theo asked placing the pizza in the piping hot oven.

"No date for me either. I'm kind of the host of this soiree. I have to keep everything in order. I didn't have much time for date searching." He said, now adding sauce to the dough.

"We just need to make it through a few more days and all of this dance stuff will be over." Theo sighed with relief.

"Right-o!" RJ said making a finger pistol.

Meanwhile, in the dining room, Fran noticed that Dominic and Casey were leading all of the customers outside. They sat the people down and took their orders. She headed over to Lily at the register.

"Why are Dom and Casey bringing people outside?" she asked leaning on the counter.

"Thanks for coming to JKP!" Lily said to the customer, and then turned to Fran. "My guess is that they're going to use the tables that are out there, seeing as how we're full in here." Lily explained closing the register. They she heard Fran let out a loud sigh. "What's the matter, Fran?" she asked, "You seem down."

Fran waited until no one was at the register, she looked around to make sure nobody heard her. She leaned into Lily, "It's just…" she began, "I was hoping that Dom was going to ask me to the Spring dance, but he hasn't asked me yet and it's in three days." She said now looking at the table sadly.

"Does he even know about it? He hasn't been here nearly as long as we have." Lily stated.

Fran stood up with relief, "Good point, maybe I'm just worrying too much. Anyways, has Casey asked _you_ yet?" Fran asked with a sly smile. Then it seemed like Fran's sad face had made its way onto Lily. She looked to see if any customers were around, and when she saw there wasn't, looked out the window at Casey. He was laughing and smiling with his customers.

"No, no not yet." She sadly admitted.

Fran immediately tried to console her. "I-I'm sure he will! Don't worry about it!" she kicked herself for even asking her about it.

"It's not just that, Fran." Lily added still looking at him.

"Then what it is?" she asked curiously.

Lily sighed as she watched him. "I think I'm falling in love with him."


	2. One Little Sting

Within the evil depths of Dai Shi's temple, Dai Shi was outside fighting a great number of his own Rin Shi Warriors for training. The Rin Shi surrounded him on all sides hopping up and down rhythmically. He just glared at them with an evil grin. They began to hop closer to him. He grabbed his cloak and threw it off of his body. He turned to look at all of the porcelain faces of his opponents. He was unfazed.

He then threw his hands at his sides and began to glow a faint gold. With one swift motion he raised his hands, releasing his lion spirit. "I call forth the spirit of the mighty lion!" he called as the gold and black lion devoured his minions. They faded away into a purple mist, his lion spirit following shortly after. He chuckled at his work.

Afterwards, Camille wandered onto the grass, picking up his cloak and draping it back around his shoulders. "Pity the rangers aren't _that_ easy to destroy." She stated.

Dai Shi whipped around to look at her face evilly. "I _will _destroy them. I just need the right plan…but what?" he asked himself.

"Don't worry Dai Shi, I'm sure you'll think of something." Camille said trying to boost his morale.

"I need to do so fast. With each passing day the rangers grow stronger. But they soon forget—so do I." He said evilly. Then Dai Shi looked at his arm. He felt a light sting and found that a bee had stung him in the crease of his arm. Camille tried to swat it away, but it was already dead.

"Are you alright? What was that?" Camille asked looking at the insect.

Dai Shi yanked the stinger from his arm without a flinch. "A wasp." He answered looking at the sharp object. With that, he paused liked he had an idea.

"What is it, Dai Shi?" Camille asked wondering what was going on inside that head of his.

Dai Shi just looked onward and smiled the most evil smile she had ever seen. "Perfect." He spoke in an eerie whisper. Then he quickly began to walk back into the temple, Camille bumbling behind him. He entered through the front doors of his throne room. He saw a group of blank Rin Shi Warriors hopping about and forcefully grabbed the first one he got too. He stuck the singer into its forehead and it began to thrash and jerk about.

"What're you doing?" Camille asked as she watched him work.

Dai Shi glanced at her. "Coming up with a plan." He grinned.

The Rin Shi became enshrouded in a purple mist. When the mist faded, a Rin Shi beast stood before them.

"Waspee, at your service!" The monster said in a buzzing voice with a bow. The monster was a bright yellow, just the near sigh of him made your eyes sting a little. Two large black bands wrapped around each of his arms and his torso. He had a large black stinger on his back. His arms were long and thin and he had a long red nose that curved beneath his green eyes. He had clear wings that were lined in red.

Camille walked over to the monster and looked at him head to toe. "A wasp monster? Clever." She said sounding pleased.

Dai Shi pushed her out of the way and approached Waspee. "I want you to annihilate the rangers. You think you can handle that?" he asked peering into his eyes.

"Oh, I can do more than that!" Waspee boasted. "One sting from my hunter wasps and the venom injected into them drains their life force until they're finished! Un-bee-lieveable, huh?" Waspee punned. Camille rolled her eyes in disgust at the joke.

"Send your hunters out as a warning to the rangers, then make your move." Dai Shi ordered. "The rangers won't know what hit them." Dai Shi said proudly.

"As you wish Dai 'Shee'!" Waspee joked again.

"And stop with the bee jokes!" Camille yelled at him.

"R-right." Waspee said clearing his throat. Then he left the room to follow the orders Dai Shi had given him.

Camille walked over to Dai Shi and folded her arms. "Do you really think we can count on this goon?" she asked.

"Do you have a better idea?" Dai Shi snapped at her. Then Dai Shi went to leave as well. "If I wanted your opinion, I'd force it out of you." He finished as he left.

"Yeah." Camille said to herself with a sigh.

The evening of the day was even more beautiful than the afternoon, and business was still going strong. The rangers kept up the pace cooking and waiting. Casey headed outside with a large 'RJ Special' pizza on a tray in his hands. He placed it on a table that sat two women, one blonde and one brunette. The two kept swatting away wasps that flew around them.

"Here we are ladies, one RJ Special hot from the oven." Casey said laying the tray down before them. He noticed the ladies swatting away the bugs like crazy. "Something wrong?" he asked them.

"Well," the blonde said, "all of these wasps are making it hard to sit out here."

"I noticed that too." Casey said looking around, swatting a few out of his way as well. "They weren't here a little while ago. Strange…" he said.

Finally, the brunette couldn't take it anymore. "Sis, I can't handle eating out here. I'm allergic to wasps and I don't want to risk getting stung!" the brunette said nervously.

"Okay, um, can we get a box for this pizza to make it to go?" The blonde asked hoping she wasn't being a burden.

"Not a problem." Casey said nicely, "I'll be right back." Then he headed back into the restaurant.

As he made his way through the dining room, he and Lily shared a glance at one another, but as soon as they realized that they were just staring at one another, they quickly returned to what they were doing. Casey continued into the kitchen and grabbed a white box with the JKP logo on it.

"Something wrong, Casey?" Theo asked.

Casey twiddled the box in his hands, it was clear something was bothering him.

"Come on, out with it." RJ insisted.

Casey sighed. "It's just…I really want to ask Lily to this Spring thing but…" he said trailing off.

"'But' what, man?" RJ asked curiously.

Casey abruptly stopped playing with the box and looked at him. "I'm afraid she'll say no. There." He said being straightforward.

"Trust us, Casey, if you ask Lily to this dance the last thing she'll say is no." Theo assured him as he heaved a large pizza into the oven.

Casey paused and smiled for a moment. "Think so?"

"We _know_ so." RJ chimed in. "Now go ask her already. 'With the strength of a tiger' right? Tigers got to be strong when it comes to girls."

Casey chuckled then nodded. "Right. Okay, I'll do it. Just have to run this box out to a customer really quick." He said, then left the kitchen and headed back outside. The wasps seemed to have doubled since he had been out there last. He ran over to the ladies at the table so that they could be on their way.

"Here you go, one large box. Sorry about all these wasps. They're usually no like this." Casey told them.

"Thanks…Casey." The blonde said looking at his nametag.

"Yeah, thanks." The brunette added, then the two packed up their pizza and left quickly.

"No problem. Be safe going home!" he called out to them. They nodded and then were gone. No one seemed to be outside anymore due to all of the flying pests. Casey found the sudden swarm of bugs strange.

"How can it go from no wasps out here to practically a swarm in a matter of minutes?" He asked himself. He decided to shrug it off for now and began to collect all of the dishes scattered about. As he reached for a glass, he didn't notice that a large wasp was on the other side of it. He grabbed it and was stung by the wasp. He cried out softly and dropped the glass that shattered on the ground. He scanned his hand to try and pull out the stinger, but for some reason, it was gone. He rubbed his hand to make the stinging sensation subside. Dominic came out moments later.

"Whoa, look at all these wasps! No wonder all the customers are leaving." Dominic said swatting around his face.

"Yeah." Casey said still rubbing his hand. It bothered him that the stinger was deep in his hand and he couldn't get it out. His hand was on fire.

"I know what you're problem is." Dominic said patting Casey on his back.

"What?" Casey said with confusion. He wasn't aware that he had a problem, other than the fact there was a stinger deep in his hand.

"You're afraid to ask Lily to this Spring…thing." Dominic stated.

"You haven't asked Fran yet." Casey replied picking up more dishes.

"Wrong, my friend!" Dominic said proudly, "I just asked her and she said yes. Whoo!" he cheered.

Casey looked at him strangely and couldn't help but laugh, he was happy for him. "Well, good for you. I know you've liked her for a while." He said picking more and more plates. Dominic grabbed them from him and gave him a stern look.

"I got this. You, go." He ordered him. Although he'd never admit it, he was nervous about his date with Fran and hoped Casey and Lily would double with him.

"Fine." Casey submitted. "Just watch out for the wasps, they're all over the place."

"Covered!" Dominic said tossing a green spray can in the air and catching it. "RJ gave me this to spray all over." He said demonstrating by spraying down a large wasp. They wasp flew away as fast as it could. "Quit stalling. Go." He ordered.

"Okay, okay, I'm going." Casey said holding up his hands. Then he entered JKP.

Dominic continued to spray the area and clean up. He laughed to himself. "Tigers." He said with a sigh.

When Casey walked in the room, he saw Fran talking up a storm to Lily. Which was strange because Fran was never much of a talker. He figured she was so excited due to the fact that Dominic just asked her to the dance, and he was right. He walked up to join in on their conversation.

"Hey, Casey." Lily said with a friendly wave when she saw him. Casey gave a small wave back.

When Fran noticed that he was behind her, she quickly turned around and told him her good news. "Hey, Casey! Did you hear? Dom asked me the Spring party! Oh my gosh! I have to find a dress, and shoes and makeup and do—"

"Breathe, Fran." Lily cut in with a chuckle.

"I gotta go!" Fran said hastily as she rushed out of JKP almost knocking down a couple coming in at the same time.

"Well, looks like I just took over Fran's shift." Lily said with a small sigh.

"I'll help you." Casey insisted going behind the counter with her.

"Oh, that's nice. But aren't you already helping Dom outside?" Lily asked pointing outside to Dominic. When Casey looked over he saw Dominic pointing at him mouthing 'Ask her already!'

Casey tried to get her attention off of him. "Not…exactly. I…I wanted to ask you something." He continued nervously.

"What is it?" Lily asked feeling herself growing very excited.

"Would you like to go to this Spring dance with me? I mean if you're not busy or anything." He said wanting to kill himself from sounding as nervous as he was.

Lily just smiled sweetly at him. "I'd love too."

Casey's eyes grew wide for a moment in shock. "Really? Cool. Um…it's in three days so…" he trailed off running out of words.

"Right. Cool. I'll be sure to go and get a dress." Lily told him.

After a few moments of an awkward silence, Casey broke it. "Well, I'd better go and tell Dom that I'm taking over for Fran."

"Okay." She replied with a small laugh. She thought it was adorable that he was so nervous to ask her. Little did he know she was worried he wasn't going too. As soon as Casey turned around a huge smile came over his face and he headed back outside.

"Well?" Dominic asked expectantly.

"She said yes." Casey said grinning ear to ear.

"Alright! We both have dates now! Yes!" Dominic cheered. Then he gave Casey a high-five. He slapped Casey's stung hand—hard.

"Ow!" Casey cried quickly cradling his hand.

"What is it, dude?" Dominic asked.

"Huh?" Casey said shaking it off; he wasn't going to let a sting ruin this moment for him. "Oh, I just got a cramp in my hand is all." He lied. He didn't want to make a big deal out of a little wasp sting.

Then he and the other's Morphers beeped in alert. Theo, Lily, and RJ all rushed out of the restaurant.

"There's trouble!" Theo yelled running past them.

"We gotta bolt!" Casey exclaimed running after Theo, but Lily stopped him.

"But Fran's gone, what should we do?" Lily asked frantically.

"I'll stay here and call for her. Do you guys think you'll be okay without me?" Casey asked.

"Fine. We'll try and make this fast. Come on guys!" RJ instructed. Then he, Lily and Dominic all ran to confront the trouble. After the others left, Casey looked at his hand that was now beginning to swell and shook for a moment. Then he hurried back into JKP to call Fran.

The four rangers ran to Ocean Bluff's town square to find it deserted. Everyone had been scared away thanks to Dai Shi's latest goon. Wasps were flying all over the place in large swarms, making hard to see anywhere but a few feet in front of them. The rangers swatted the wasps away from their faces.

"Ew!" Lily exclaimed. "Where did all these disgusting bugs come from?!"

"It's a real buzz-fest! But our ranger suits should protect us, let's ranger up!" RJ ordered. Then the four lined up next to one another and equipped their Morphers.

"Jungle Beast, Spirit Unleash!" they all shouted simultaneously and morphed into their colorful ranger suits.

"That takes care of _that_ problem, but we've got to find out where all of these wasps are coming from!" Dominic said as he and the others scanned the area.

"We need to find the queen and that should do the trick!" Theo contributed.

As the three men looked around, Lily froze and pointed dead ahead of her. "I'd say that's the queen." She said with a shaky voice. The three turned to see Waspee before them. He emerged from the sea of wasps.

"Oh, you're _very_ clever, rangers, but I'm more like the_ King_!!" Waspee bragged lunging at the rangers. Immediately the four rangers spread out to surround him. Waspee got airborne and flew to each of the rangers giving them a powerful blow to the chest. Lily and Theo scrambled to their feet.

"I hate bugs! Wanna try a double team T?" Lily asked aiming her fists toward the monster.

"All over it!" Theo replied twirling his jungle tonfa. Theo front flipped in front of Lily and she then rolled across his back and began a series of her cheetah jabs. Waspee grabbed her wrists to stop her.

"This Cheetah needs to slow down!" he said twisting her wrists.

"I'm in trouble, Theo!" She cried.

Theo leapt right in front of Waspee. "Let her go you insect!" he shouted swatting him twice with his tonfa. This proved to be useless. For Waspee swiped both of Theo's tonfa from him.

"You're getting sloppy, ranger!" Waspee taunted and he slashed him and Lily hard with each tonfa. Lily and Theo hit the ground rolling.

"Enough of this!" RJ said finally getting to his feet.

"What's this? A Violet Ranger? That's new!" Waspee buzzed. RJ made a dash for him. He leapt in the air sending blows with his knees. When that was unsuccessful, he just tried straight punching and kicking. Waspee flew into the air to dodge these attacks. RJ let out a growl of frustration and followed him by jumping as high as he could to attack with his knees once again. Waspee just let out an evil chuckle and kicked RJ's ankles making him flip and crash hard into the ground.

"Three out of four!" Waspee boasted. "Any more takers?" he cackled landing on the ground.

Dominic hopped to his feet. "Yeah! How about some Rhino power!" Dominic said leaping into the air, Rhino Blade in hand. He aimed it at Waspee and prepared to fire. Waspee feigned yawning when he saw the orange blast coming toward him. He turned his back to the White Ranger and exposed his wings. The attack ricocheted off of his wings and pummeled Dominic, making him join the others. The four quickly helped one another up and used each other to hold themselves up.

"It never ends with Dai Shi's freaks." Lily panted.

"Freak? I'm no freak! I'm Waspee, the baddest buzz in town!" Waspee said with a pose.

"What do you want?!" Theo shouted at him.

"Want? What do all of Dai Shi's monsters want?! To destroy you!!" Waspee retaliated. Then he forced his arms forward and more tiny wasps flew out of them. "See these little wasps? One sting from them and it drains all of your life force until your destroyed!" Waspee explained proudly. "You may be safe in your little colored suits, but the city isn't! Mwa ha ha!" he cackled.

"That's not going to happen!" Dominic yelled angrily as he and his teammates felt their strength returning.

"We're going to stop you and your lousy army!" RJ added pointing at him.

"Oh you will, will you?" Waspee asked them. "Try and stop _this_!!" Waspee screamed then omitted a loud deafening buzz from his body. The rangers grabbed their heads and were quickly on the floor.

"It's so loud!" Theo exclaimed writhing on the ground.

"Make it stop!!" Lily yelled doing the same.

Waspee walked closer to the rangers. "Too much buzz for you rangers! Let me turn it up!" Waspee yelled making the already deafening noise louder.

"I can't…take much more." RJ groaned. Waspee watched, as the rangers were about to be defeated. He had to stop however when he felt a powerful blast hit him square in the back. Then from out of nowhere, Casey emerged on his Strike Rider. He continued to blast him until he made the buzzing stop.

"Strike Rider, high speed!" Casey shouted as he rode on the scene. He rode the vehicle in front of his buddies and dismounted. "Leave my friends alone you buzz brain!" he yelled pointing at his opponent. He helped his friends up from the ground. "You guys alright?" he asked looking them over.

"We are now! What're you doing here?" Lily asked patting him on the back.

"Luckily, Fran realized that she bailed on us and hurried back!" he replied with a small laugh of relief. "What's with this dude?"

"Let's just say he's the leader of all the wasps that showed up today." RJ summed up quickly.

"Well, he's messed with the wrong rangers!" Casey said making a powerful fist. Then he ran at Waspee full speed. The others hung back for a few minutes until they got their bearings again.

"Be careful, Casey! He's a tough one!" Dominic warned.

"Don't worry, I got this!" Casey shouted back to him.

"Another ranger has come out to play?" Waspee said feeling intrigued by a new opponent. "I'll just have to defeat you as well!" he snapped.

Then he and Casey collided with one another punching and kicking at high speeds. Waspee took a cheap shot at Casey's chest. He rubbed his chest and took a few steps back to pace himself.

"Now you've made be angry!" Casey growled. "Shark Sabers!" he yelled pulling his sabers out from before him.

"You're little swords can't hurt me!" Waspee boasted.

"It's worth a try!" he retaliated. He swung his sabers full force at Waspee. He blocked each slash with his armor-covered forearms. Casey grew angrier thus fueling his attacks. Waspee just danced around the swords with ease. He then threw his fist at Casey's right hand. Casey shouted loudly in pain, dropping his sabers. He held his hand close to him as he and his friends ran over to him.

"You okay, man?" RJ asked patting him on the shoulder.

"Ye-yeah." He answered with a pained voice.

"What happened? It looked like you blocked that." Theo stated in a confused voice.

"Nothing. It's fine. I'm…fine." Casey said releasing his hand. He was glad that the other couldn't see his face inside him helmet because he was gritting his teeth together to keep from screaming.

"Are you sure?" Lily asked gently stroking his arm. Casey just nodded at her. He didn't know why but it seemed like as soon as she touched him, the pain subsided a little.

Dominic had had enough. "Go back to your hive, buzz brain!!" he roared.

"Now where's the fun in that?" Waspee asked playfully. "But that gives me an idea! Let's play a game. Catch me if you can rangers!" he said rising into the air and flying off into the distance.

"We have to catch him! We can't let his wasps sting any innocent people!" Theo cried. The team began to run after him but Casey stuck out his arm to stop them.

"Wait, what?" he asked not knowing at all what they were talking about.

"I'll explain later, but don't worry, your suit will protect you. Right now we need to split up and find this creep!" RJ said with a mixture of anger and haste. Then four of the rangers ran off in separate directions. Casey just stood there for a moment wondering what was going on.

"Uh-oh." He said to himself, knowing that whatever the wasps do, it wasn't good. He glanced at his right hand for a moment, and then decided this would have to wait. Then he ran off to help find Waspee.


	3. An Unspeakable Truth

Casey ran as fast as he could into the woods. It was hard for him to see due to the fact that wasps were flying all around him, and their buzzing made it so that he couldn't hear if Waspee was around.

"Where are you?!" Casey yelled loudly. "Quit hiding and show yourself, coward!" Then he saw Waspee fly from behind a tree beside him. He grabbed Casey's arm and pinned him against another tree.

He got right in his face. "You wanted to see me?" he buzzed.

"What does your wasp army do to people?!" Casey shouted in his face.

"What indeed." Waspee laughed.

"Answer me!!" he screamed at the insect.

"Why is it so important?" Waspee asked him, and then he saw the Red Ranger take a quick glance at his right hand. Right then, he knew what was going on. "Hmm…let's see." Waspee said in a low and evil voice grabbing Casey's right hand and squeezing it. Casey let out a loud and pained cry. After a moment, he let up. "What's this? Were you stung by one of my minions before you were morphed?" Waspee asked with a chipper tone. Casey stayed silent once again. That was all the answer Waspee needed. "Ha!! That it too rich!" Waspee laughed.

"What happens if you're stung by one of them?" Casey asked. His tone was weak and defeated.

Waspee chuckled and leaned into Casey's ear. "They drain your life force." He whispered.

"What?" Casey asked worriedly. He felt like the wind had been knocked out of him. Inside his helmet his eyes were wide. Waspee released him and took a few steps back.

"It's true. Your suit may protect you from being stung again Red Ranger, but it doesn't change the fact that you already were." Waspee explained, loving every moment holding this over him.

"My friends will find a way to help me." Casey said in a low voice. He'd never admit it, but this monster really intimidated him.

Waspee was pacing back and forth while Casey spoke, but his newest words made him pause and look at him. "I highly doubt that." He told him.

"Why?" Casey asked taking one step closer to the beast.

"Because if you tell them that you've been stung…that pretty little Yellow Ranger you love will have to pay the price." Waspee said giving him an ultimatum.

Casey felt anger fill his entire body. He ran closer to Waspee. "If you touch her I'll end you." He snapped at him.

Waspee pushed Casey away from him. "Not exactly. If you tell even a soul about your…predicament, I'll send my entire wasp army after her—and only her." Waspee sneered. Casey felt as if the wind had been knocked out of him, he couldn't move. The tough of anything happening to Lily made him feel sick to his stomach. He'd never be the cause of Lily being in danger—he'd die first. "Make your choice, tiger master." Waspee said pushing him to answer.

There was never any doubt on what he should do; he'd just have to deal with what had happened to him—alone. "Fine." Casey said through his teeth. "Just…just don't hurt her." He said in a pleading tone.

"Hey," Waspee began quickly turning around grabbing Casey's injured hand and squeezing it once more, bring him to his knees. "I'll keep my promise, as long as you keep yours." He said speaking almost in a whisper. Then he threw Casey to the ground. "See ya, Red Ranger." He said cockily, and then flew away.

After a moment Casey made it to his knees. He shook his hand hoping to shake away the pain Waspee had caused. Then he heard RJ's voice come through his helmet. He reached up and pressed the button on the side of it.

"Casey? It's RJ. We haven't seen any sign of Waspee anywhere around here. Are you having any luck?" RJ asked from the static of the feed.

Casey took a moment and thought about the deal he'd just made with Waspee seconds ago. He'd never put Lily's life at risk—not for anything. "N-no I haven't seen him anywhere either. I guess he got away." Casey said hating the feeling of lying to the man that had been like a brother to him.

"Oh." RJ said with a hint of disappointment. "Hey, are you alright? You sound like something happened."

Casey shut his eyes and gently shook his head event though RJ couldn't see him. "I'm fine, really." He lied again, his hand throbbing painfully.

"…Okay." RJ hesitated. "Let's all meet back at the loft to regroup. If we try hard enough I'm sure we'll find a way to defeat him." RJ said sounding surprisingly optimistic given the circumstances.

"Great, I'll see you guys there." Casey answered then dropped his hand. He pulled his glove off noticing that his hand was swollen. He observed it for a moment then placed his red glove back on. "I'll keep you safe Lily. I promise." He said to himself.

Waspee flew around in the evening sky watching his army work for him below. When he saw that he made it to Dai Shi's temple, he descended and walked in. He saw Dai Shi sitting proudly on his throne with Camille rubbing his shoulders. When he saw that Waspee had entered, Dai Shi leaned forward.

"So…how'd it go?" Dai Shi asked expectantly.

Waspee imitated his fight with the rangers as he spoke. "Those rangers went down fast! And it gets even better!" he continued.

"Really?" Dai Shi asked with intrigue.

"Yeah! The Red Ranger was somehow infected with the venom from one of my army wasps! Guess he was asking for it!" Waspee boasted.

Dai Shi's eyes grew wide with happiness. "Beautiful. You've really done well Waspee. Perhaps I underestimated you." Then an evil grin spread across his face.

"Wait…" Camille began as she walked from behind the throne. "I thought that the ranger's suits protected them from the sting's venom?" she continued folding her arms.

"It _does_." Waspee answered her. "It seems hat one of the wasps in my first swarm that I sent out was able to sting him before he morphed."

"Fascinating." Camille said still wanting more answers. "But what if he tells the others that he's been stung? Wouldn't the others just help him?" she asked.

"That won't happen. You see I threatened to destroy the one he loves most if he made even the slightest little peep." Waspee explained. "There. Any more questions lizard?" he said in an annoyed manner.

"No." Dai Shi answered sharply for her. "Now it's time for your next task." He sneered.

"Anything my master." Waspee said with a bow of honor and loyalty.

"Send your wasps into the city overnight. That ought to take care of most of the civilians." He said. "How long does it take before they fade away?" Dai Shi asked with a grin.

"A day or two for the average human. Three days for the ranger." Waspee explained happily.

"Why longer for the ranger?" Camille asked. She didn't know why but this monster got on her nerves.

"The ranger's animal spirit makes it take longer. The venom has to wear down the spirit's life force before it begins on the human's. Get it?" Waspee asked rolling his eyes.

"Then we'll wait. It may not take as long as we think. I want this done right, there's no need to rush things at the moment." Dai Shi chimed in.

"Will do, Dai Shi." Waspee said saluting. "I'll send my army to attack tonight!" then he left the room with a kick in his step. He loved that Dai Shi trusted him, and had good reason too.

"Finally." Dai Shi said leaning back in his chair. "That pathetic ranger will be gone and I can rule this world." Camille just smiled and began to leave the room as well. But Dai Shi cleared his throat loudly making her stop. "You're not finished." He ordered her. Camille just nodded hesitantly and headed back behind the throne to rub his shoulders.


	4. Busy Night

Later that night, Fran and the rangers closed up JKP. It felt like it took hours for this moment to arrive due to their hectic day. They placed chairs on top of the tables, mopped the floor and counted the day's profits. RJ, Theo and Dominic all headed into the kitchen to clean the many dishes that got used and Fran, Lily and Casey continued their work in the dining room.

"So, Lily, are we still on for tomorrow?" Fran asked giving the table a spritz of cleaner.

Lily looked up from her mopping. "Of course, Fran." She smiled. "I'll meet you at the mall at 11:30 tomorrow morning, okay?"

"Terrific!" Fran smiled happily while wiping off the table.

When Casey heard this, he looked up from the register. "What's tomorrow?" he asked curiously.

"Oh, Fran and I were going to go and search for dresses for the party. It's the day after tomorrow so we hope that all the good dresses aren't taken." Lily explained.

"Oh, that should be fun." Casey said with a smile.

"It will be!" Fran chimed in. "But you and Dom aren't allowed to see them until the dance. We want it to be a surprise." Fran said looking at him sternly.

"Gotcha." Casey said pointing at her with a friendly wink. Then he turned to Lily and the two shared a sweet look with one another. Neither one realized how excited the other one was. It really didn't matter to either one of them what the other wore, it was just the fact that they got to go with one another than made it special. After a while Fran removed her apron and placed it behind the counter.

"Well, I'm off. You guys have a good night. See you tomorrow, Lily." Fran said with a wave. "Bye guys!" she yelled into the kitchen to the others.

"See ya, Fran!" RJ shouted back.

"Bye, Fran!" Theo yelled. Then Dominic ran into the room through the kitchen doors and took Fran in his arms hugging her tightly.

"Bye, Fran. Have fun tomorrow with Lily. I'll miss you." He said looking down at her.

Fran chuckled shyly. "I'll miss you too. And I'm sure Lily and I will have a blast." She smiled, then gave Dominic one more tight hug, then left JKP. Dominic then headed back for the kitchen.

"I'm one happy Rhino." He joked as he passed Casey and Lily then disappeared back into the kitchen.

After he and Fran left the room. Lily and Casey experienced a few moments of awkward silence. When he couldn't stand it anymore, Casey finally broke it.

"So…what kind of dress do you think you'll wind you getting?" he asked counting the cash in the register.

Lily paused and leaned against her mop as she thought for a moment. "Hmm…well, I have a few ideas, but I know that I want to be long and have a yellow shade like my ranger color." She told him with a sweet chuckle. He let out a small laugh as well. As Casey continued his work, he pushed the register closed with his swollen hand and cried out softly when he felt it sting.

"You all right Casey?" she running over to him.

"Y-yeah, fine." He said rubbing his hand, keeping it far from Lily's view.

"What's that?" She asked as she watched him cradle his hand.

"Nothing." He heard himself lie. He quickly placed his hand behind him. "I just sprained it when I was sparring with RJ earlier. Go figure. The guy can fight blind but he can still miss a move every now and again." He said with a forced laugh.

"Oh." She said hesitantly. "Okay. I'm going to go put the mop and bucket away, then head up to bed. Goodnight." She said looking in his eyes, knowing that something he was saying was a bit off. RJ was the greatest trainer she had ever known, he didn't usually screw up moves and injure a student. But she decided to leave it alone.

"Goodnight, Lily." Casey said to her. He watched her leave the room, feeling terrible that he lied to her. He walked sadly over to the booth Fran had just cleaned and ran his fingers through his hair. He took a look at his hand and noticed that it was almost twice as swollen as it was a few hours ago. It was at this exact moment that he realized that he was beginning to feel more tired than usual. He heard Waspee's warning ring in his head:

"The venom drains your life force…and if you tell even a soul, I'll send my entire army after her—and only her…"

"Oh no…" Casey sighed to himself.

Late that night Waspee wandered into Ocean Bluff's town square. It was set right in the middle of town and was the perfect place to set his plan in motion. Everything in town was closed and all of the townspeople were in for the night. It was a ghost town.

"Let's see the rangers get out of _this _one." Waspee snickered to himself. "Soon, all of Ocean Bluff's citizens will be gone!" Then the wasp extended his arms and an entire army of wasps flew out of them. The pests flew all around him in a thick wave. "Go my minions! Attack Ocean Bluff with your venom! Leave now stone unturned! Make me proud!" he yelled at them. Then the large wasp swarm flew all around the city to do their master's bidding. After all of his wasps were out of sight, Waspee cackled into the night air. "Ocean Bluff's about to get stung." He said evilly, and then flew into the night.


	5. Ghost Town

Casey found himself and Lily in the midst of the woods alone. No one else was around as far as he could see.

"Casey? What're you doing here?" Lily asked him when she turned and saw him.

He wasn't really sure why he was there, but he answered the question anyways. "I was just…investigating. Seeing if there were any clues around to find where Waspee's hiding." Then he remembered something from yesterday. "Hey, I thought that you and Fran were supposed to go shopping for dresses today?" he asked her.

"I am. I just know a shortcut to the mall through these woods." She answered.

Casey smiled at her, but it was soon washed away when he saw a wasp land on Lily's shoulder. He grew frightened when he realized it was one of Waspee's bugs. He could tell because it had the same black band pattern as Waspee did. "Lily…don't move." He warned her as he inched slowly toward her.

"What is it? Your scaring me, Casey." She said staying still.

"There's just a wasp crawling on you. Don't worry I'll get it." He told her with a comforting tone, even though he was panicking inside. With every second that passed he prayed 'please don't let it sting her.'

"Oh, is that all?" she asked moving her finger to the wasp allowing it to crawl onto her index finger. Which Casey found strange, Lily was usually terrified of bugs and would never be this calm around one, let alone let it crawl on her. "I'm not allergic to them or anything."

"Trust me, you don't want to get stung by _that_ kind of wasp. Allergic or not." He insisted still moving slowly closer to her.

Lily cocked her head to the side and looked at Casey with confusion. "Why?" she was wondering why he was so concerned with a little wasp, bugs never seemed to bother him.

"Just please, Lily. Trust me on this." He said quickly staring down the insect crawling on her finger. He extended his hand to prepare to swat the wasp away.

Lily backed away when she saw his red and swollen hand. "What happened to your hand, Casey?" she asked with a worried look.

"I told you, RJ hurt me when we were sparring." Casey said nervously.

"Try telling me the truth." She snapped with a surprisingly annoyed tone. He had never heard Lily sound this aggravated, much less at him.

"I can't." he said stopping and lowering his head.

"Why is that?" Lily retaliated.

"I just can't!" he yelled in frustration. He wasn't really mad at her, he just knew that every second she held that wasp there was a higher chance she'd get stung and wind up in the same boat he was in. "Please, Lily!"

"No! Not until you tell me the truth about what happened to your hand!" She yelled at him. Casey hated this, he never seen Lily act so pushy.

"Fine!! I got it from a wasp, just like that one! It drains your life force away until your destroyed!" he screamed in fury. Then after he spoke, he felt a chill fall over him. He had done the worst. He heard a voice he expected from his actions.

"I warned you Red Ranger!!" Waspee snickered in the distance. Casey couldn't see him; he could only hear his horrible buzz voice. Then, moments later, a swarm of wasps surrounded Lily on all sides. They were so fast that he couldn't stop them. Lily screamed in horror.

"LILY, NO!!!" he screamed as he reached for her.

Then Casey felt himself jolt awake. He was drenched in sweat and was breathing harder than he ever remembered. He looked around the room and saw everything in his room—it as all a dream. He took a few moments to catch his breath then he looked down at his hand. It was more swollen than before and throbbed like crazy.

"What am I going to do?" he asked himself in a breathless voice.

The next day in Ocean Bluff was completely different than the day before it. Everything seemed be moving in slow motion. Hardly any people were out and the ones that were seemed to be moving very sluggishly. The town was all drained and the rangers had Waspee to thank for that.

The only people that seemed to have any life in them besides the other rangers were Fran and Lily. This was the morning they were headed to the mall to buy their 'Bring in the Spring' gowns. The men tended to the very few customers JKP had that day, giving Lily and Fran the perfect opportunity to shop. They didn't want to put too much on the guys, so they decided to help them—up until 11:30 hit. As soon as it did, Lily and Fran tore off their aprons with huge smiles on their faces.

"Well, Fran and I are off to shop for our dresses!" Lily announced to the others.

"Have fun. You and Fran are lucky that there has been so few customers today seeing as how Dom and I are covering your shifts." RJ said leaning on the counter.

"Yes, we know and thank you." Fran said adjusting her glasses in embarrassment.

"Oh, he's just messing with you guys. Go with no worries, we got you covered." Dominic said immediately making Fran feel better. There was something in his smile that just made her melt inside.

"Yeah, make sure you get the prettiest dresses there! Although the two of you will look beautiful no matter what you wear." Theo said pouring on the charm. Lily and Fran couldn't help but swoon at his kind words.

"Aw, thanks, T." Lily smiled at him, Fran doing the same. "Right, Casey?" Theo continued jabbing Casey with his elbow. Casey had been leaning against the counter leaning on his hand practically falling asleep. Theo's elbow to his shoulder woke him up fast. He gasped when Theo woke him and looked around the room confirming where he was.

"R-right!" Casey yelled although he had no idea what he was agreeing too. He quickly stood up straight and adjusted his bright orange cap.

RJ shot him a strange look. "You feeling alright, man? That's, like, the third time you've fallen asleep on us this morning." He told him, folding his arms.

"Yeah, I'm great!" Casey said forcefully make a fist with his hand.

Dominic gave Casey the same look that RJ had just given him. He examined his face for a moment before he spoke. "Yeah, man. Don't take this the wrong way, but…you look horrible. You're really pale and tired lately." Dominic said.

"Thanks, Dom." Casey said sarcastically with an annoyed glance at him.

"Uh, maybe you should rest up in the loft for a bit. You know, get your bearings. Can't be falling asleep in the pizzas and besides, there are only, like, three people here. We can handle it." RJ explained waving his arms about.

"Yeah. Fran and I can push back our dress shopping to tomorrow." Lily said sweetly. Fran nodded in agreement.

"Of course! We wouldn't want you falling asleep at the party tomorrow." Fran told him beginning to place her apron back on. Casey held out his arm to stop her from doing so.

"No, really, I'm fine. I want to help you all out. Please. And I want you and Lily to get your dresses. I know how much you two have been looking forward to this. I insist." Casey told them as he took Fran's apron and put it on himself.

"Well…okay." Lily agreed hesitantly. Then she and Fran headed to leave, but before they were out the door Lily turned back to Casey. "You're sure?" she asked.

"100% sure." Casey said with a nod and a smile. Then the women left JKP and their dress hunt began. The men however continued their pizza making.

"If you're _sure_ you're alright, Case, I need you to take these sodas to table four." RJ said handing Casey a large tray with seven drinks balancing on top of it. He took the tray and held it carefully making sure that nothing spilled.

"I'm on it." Casey said confidently. Then he headed into the dining room to serve his customers. The tray felt heavy to him, like someone was pushing down on it, but he continued to walk. As he made his way over to the table, he felt his breath leave him. He was hit by a wave of light-headedness and his body felt like jelly. The room was spinning. The next thing he knew he was on the ground with the sodas spilled all over as well as broken glass. Customer's gasps came throughout the room. Dominic, Theo and RJ all rushed out of the kitchen when they heard the crash. When they saw their friend on the floor, they ran to help him to his feet.

"Casey!" RJ shouted lending him his hand. The three finally got Casey to his feet.

"You alright, buddy?" Theo asked helping Casey step out of the glass.

"You went down like a sack of hammers!" Dominic exclaimed.

As Casey made it to his feet and the room stopped spinning, he looked down to see what he had done. Soda and glass was all over the floor and the customers were all staring at him.

"RJ…I'm so sorry! I'll pay you back every pen—" Casey began.

"No, no it's alright. Mistakes happen. Theo, Dom and I will all clean up this mess…you just go upstairs and lie down. _Now._" RJ demanded. Casey could tell by the tone of his voice that RJ wasn't really mad at him, more he just was worried about him. After all, he _was_ like Casey's older brother.

"R-right. And again, sorry." Casey apologized again. RJ just nodded back at him. Then he headed up to the loft, gripping the rail of the stairs tightly. As they watched him head up there, Dominic and Theo shot one another a worried look.


	6. Frills and Spills

When Lily and Fran finally made it to the mall. They were shocked to see that there were so few cars parked in the parking lot. Inside the mall was even weirder, there were very few people there and the ones that were, were just walking slowly along. Lily and Fran knew what had happened and who was the cause. They also knew that if they didn't know where Waspee was they couldn't do a thing. So they decided to shop for their dresses—fast.

"I hope all of these people will be alright." Fran said looking around at the sickly people.

"Me too. Let's just hurry up and find out dresses just in case the others need us for anything." Lily said with haste. The two then ran to the store in which to buy their dresses. When they walked in they were surprised to see so many dresses still on the racks. The party was the next day; all of the good dresses should have been long gone.

They decided not to waste any time and just immediately start trying on gowns. Each of them tried on three or four dresses before they found the right one. Fran was the first to find hers. The dress was long and midnight blue with a sweetheart neckline. The sleeves draped around her arms delicately and the way the dress flared out at the bottom made it look like liquid—it was beautiful. She finished the dress off with silver shoes and her outfit was complete.

Fran glanced at herself in the mirror and got a huge smile on her face, she had never felt as beautiful as she did at this moment. "This is it." She said trying to contain her excitement, her face beaming.

Lily's eyes grew wide when she saw the ensemble in its entirety. Fran looked so pretty and you could tell in her face that she finally felt the confidence she deserved to feel all along. "Oh, Fran! You look so beautiful!!" Lily yelled clapping her hands. "Dom's going to go crazy over you!" she added.

Fran played with her dress in her fingers as she looked happily at herself. After a moment she turned to Lily. "What about you? Did you find anything you liked?" she asked.

"I have one in the dressing room that I liked but I haven't tried it on yet." Lily said sheepishly.

Fran stepped down from the small pedestal she was on and walked over to Lily. "What's wrong, Lil. You seem distracted." Fran said sweetly.

Lily just stared at her shoes. "It's just…" she began then looked to Fran, "I'm worried about Casey. I just have this feeling that there's something he's not telling us." She admitted.

"Don't worry." Fran consoled her placing her arm around her, "RJ's with him as well as Dom and Theo. If there's anything he needs help with, they'll find it." She reassured her. Then she jumped in front of her eagerly. "Now go try on that dress!" she said excitedly.

Lily couldn't help but crack a smile at Fran's silly behavior. "Oh, alright." Lily submitted playfully rolling her eyes. Before she walked in the dressing room she turned to her friend. "Thanks, Fran." She said with a sweet smile. Fran smiled back. They were as close as sisters and always would be.

A couple of minutes later Lily emerged from the dressing room. She wore a dress of two colors. It was diagonally separated in half, black on one side and yellow on the other. It was strapless with a sweetheart neckline as well. The dress was somewhat form fitting but flared out toward the bottom. She ended the gown with black-strapped heels.

"What do you think?" Lily asked nervously. As much as she loved the dress it was showing more skin than she was used too.

"Wow…" Fran exclaimed. "Just…wow."

"This is it?" Lily asked looking at herself in the three-way mirror.

"Definitely." They said in unison.

Lily turned to Fran with a huge smile on her face. "I love it!" she yelled.

"Mine too!" Fran added.

"Let's hurry back to the others now." Lily said. Then the two changed back into their less glamorous clothes and took their shoeboxes and dresses up to the checkout counter. The brunette women that was working the counter was lying her head down asleep.

Lily gently tapped the woman's arm. "Um, ma'am? Are you alright?" she asked. The woman jumped awake.

"Yes, of course!" the tired woman said as she fixed her hair. "Just a little tired for some reason today." She said trying to sound peppy.

"It seems like a lot of people are like you today. This place is practically empty!" Fran observed.

The woman began to ring up all of Lily and Fran's things. "Well, most people came here yesterday afternoon, but ever since this morning it's been like a ghost town. You two are actually the first customers I've had all day." The lady said placing the items in bags. "That's $300 on the nose."

Lily and Fran each pulled out a hundred dollar bill and a fifty. They decided to split the cost of their dresses so that they could get the ones they really wanted. When they went to hand the woman the money to play, Lily noticed that the woman's arm was swollen and red.

"Are you alright Miss? You're arm doesn't look so good." Lily told her.

The woman took the money and puller her sleeve down over her wound. "Oh, fine. A wasp got me right in the arm the other day. It stings a lot but I'll live." She said handing the women their bags.

"Thanks!" Fran smiled happily.

"Yeah, thanks. Hope you feel better soon." Lily said with a concerned look on her face.

"Thanks. Have fun at the party!" the lady said, then Lily and Fran left the store.

Outside the store, Lily stopped. "I hope that isn't one of Waspee's wasp stings." She said nervously.

"I know, I thought the same thing. We better hurry back to JKP and see if that creep ever showed up again." Fran said sternly. Lily nodded in response and the ladies rushed to head back to JKP.

Meanwhile, in Dai Shi's temple Waspee busted through the doors proudly with his chest held high. Dai Shi sat lazily in his throne as Camille scrubbed his boots. When she heard someone enter, she stood and stepped aside.

Dai Shi leaned forward as he saw Waspee enter. "Well?" he asked expectantly.

"It may have taken my army all night but we were able to infect a majority of Ocean Bluff with our venom. Only a small portion remains." Waspee boasted.

"Well, handle the rest of the city. This is too good of a plan for you to screw it up on account of slacking off." Dai Shi scolded him. It seemed he was unaware as to how lazy he himself had been lately.

"I'll do the best I can…but what about those four rangers? There's no way I can get to them when they're in their ranger forms." Waspee told him hesitantly.

"Take care of them as well. You may not be able to inflict them with your venom, but you can use your strength to handle them." Dai Shi sneered. Then he sat back in his throne he got a smile on his face when a thought crossed his mind. "The red one shouldn't be able to last much longer. He shouldn't get in your way." Dai Shi said happily.

"Right away." Waspee said with a loyal bow then flapped his wings and flew out of the temple.

Camille stood beside Dai Shi as she watched the bug leave. "Think he'll be able to handle it?" she asked.

"He'd better." Dai Shi answered coldly.

Upstairs in JKP's loft, Casey lay still in his bed staring at the ceiling. The thoughts of everything that had happened over the past few days washed over him. He may not be telling his friends that he made a deal with Waspee to keep Lily safe, but he still felt that in some way he was letting them down. RJ was frustrated at him for valid reasons and he knew that the others knew something was bothering him. He'd just have to hope that they didn't figure out that reason.

He felt so helpless. He had lied to his friends multiple times over that past couple of days. But he knew that if he told them the truth Lily would be destroyed and he wasn't going to let that happen—ever. The mere thought of Lily being in any sort of stress was too much for him to bear.

He just continued to look at the high ceiling. The room was silent. The only sounds that he could hear was his breathing and rapid heartbeat. His mind was racing and his hand felt as if it were on fire. He never remembered feeling this useless.

The silence was finally broken when he heard RJ's televisions click on in the other room. He raced into the living room to see Waspee all over the five screens of RJ's setup. He was on the beach near the edge of town running around the empty beaches that he had caused.

"I know you're there Red Ranger. Bet you're really hating me about know. How's your hand? Does it _sting_?" Waspee joked as he pranced about in the sand. "Ha ha! I'm looking for a battle…think you can handle it?" he taunted. Then the TVs shut off. Casey just stood there in shock for a moment and thought over what he should do. If he warned the others, he would just be putting them in danger. If he fought him himself, at least he had the least to lose and Lily would finally be safe with him out of the picture. He thought about what Waspee had just said, _"Think you can handle it?"_ Truth was he _didn't_ think he could handle it. It felt like a truck had hit him. He glanced at his aching hand, and when he did, he felt angry. He threw all of his qualms out the window and grabbed the vine, swinging out of the loft.


	7. A Moment's Reprieve

Lily and Fran busted through the JKP doors with their bags tightly in hand. From what they saw things looked like they went smoothly enough while they were away.

"We're back! You guys seemed to have handled everything pretty well!" Lily said cheerfully.

"You guys sure were fast. Did you get the dresses you wanted?" RJ asked mopping the floor.

"You know it! You and Casey will not be disappointed." Fran said waving the bag in Dominic's face.

Fran's mention of Casey made Lily realize that he was nowhere to be found. "Speaking of which, where _is _Casey?" Lily asked walking toward the kitchen doors.

"Stop!" Theo said throwing his arms out to stop her.

"What?" she asked in shock.

"Well, there was a little…accident earlier and now there's glass all over the floor." Dominic explained as he knelt down to pick up more glass pieces.

"Accident?" Lily asked. She saw Theo, Dominic and RJ give each other a strange look. "RJ…where's Casey?" she asked feeling herself growing more worried with each passing second.

RJ sighed and leaned the mop against the wall. "Ok. Right after you and Fran left, Casey…collapsed."

"What?!" Lily asked frantically looking to the others quickly.

"He's fine, Lily." Theo intervened. "RJ just ordered him to lay down for a while in the loft. He's resting." Theo said. His words made Lily feel a little better but not by much so she rushed upstairs to check on him as fast as she could.

"Is he really alright?" Fran asked them.

"We…don't know." RJ answered bluntly. Truth was, he didn't know what was going on with him and didn't know what to tell Lily.

After a few moments the others heard Lily rushing down the stairs. "He's gone!" she yelled in a panic. That was all the cue the other rangers needed and without a second thought, they rushed out of the restaurant.

"You got covered here?" Dominic asked Fran before he left.

"Yeah of course. Go!" she rushed him. Dominic nodded his head firmly then ran out behind his teammates.

Casey ran to the beach shore where he saw Waspee moments ago. The soft noise of waves filled the air and the breeze smelled faintly of salt. He tried to ignore the fact that everything around him was blurry. He faintly saw people sleeping on nearby benches and in the sand. After what felt like hours of running, he finally saw Waspee up ahead.

Waspee turned when he heard Casey approach. "Oh, so you _did_ decide to show up. Not a very smart choice on your part. But I have to admit that I'm impressed with your stamina." Waspee said in his horrible buzzing voice.

"What have you done to all of these innocent people?!" Casey shouted at him as he scanned the beach looking at all of the injured people.

Waspee paused when he heard the question. "You mean you don't know? I thought you of all people would understand what they're going through." Waspee answered.

Casey thought for a moment, and then he realized what had happened to all of them.

"They've all been infected with my venom…much like you have Red Ranger." Waspee said in a cold voice.

At that moment Casey felt as if he'd been hit with a ton of bricks. He knew that he had been infected with the venom, but seeing all of these people so lifeless made it all become a harsh reality he couldn't handle.

"You mean…" Casey began, "all of their life force has been drained?" he said looking at the people even closer.

"Precisely. And very soon you will be joining them ranger." Waspee said with an evil cackle.

"I'll fight this. I won't be destroyed!" Casey shouted firmly.

"Oh, really?" Waspee asked with amusement. "I think you underestimate my powers!!" he shouted while extending his arms and flapping his wings rapidly. Suddenly Casey heard a deafening buzzing in his ears. He cried out loudly gripping his head and was quickly on his knees. "See ranger? You don't stand a chance!!" Waspee said walking closer to him, his arms still out and wings still flapping.

When Waspee began to flap his wings sand began to swirl all around. The thick cloud of sand before them made it so that neither of them could make out a thing. When Waspee noticed that he could no longer see his opponent, he stopped flapping his wings. Moments later, when the smoke cleared, Casey was gone.

"Huh?!" Waspee exclaimed looking around quickly. "Where'd that pesky ranger go?!" Then a loud roar came from behind him. It was Casey's tiger spirit and he had morphed during the sand storm. Immediately after the tiger spirit finished it's attack, Casey quickly ran up to the insect and slashed him hard across the chest with his Shark Sabers. Waspee crumpled to the ground like a piece of paper. Casey looked down at him with his sabers ready to strike.

"I'm not going down that easily, Waspee!" Casey screamed at him.

Waspee stood and growled in anger. "You have some nerve!! You really think you can destroy me in _your_ pathetic state?!"

"What do you mean?" Casey yelled back at him. Then he felt a sudden dizzy spell like he did back at JKP. He fell to the ground but used his sabers to prop himself up.

"_That's_ what I mean." Waspee laughed as he dusted the sand from his wings. "Your energy is being drained as we speak! You'd be lucky to make it until tomorrow night!" he yelled.

Casey rubbed his sore hand and managed to make it to his feet. "I've had enough of this!!" he yelled in fury. Then he lunged at Waspee with all he had in him. He swung his sabers side to side as fast as he could, hoping to make him feel as bad as he did. But he was surprised when Waspee took the blows with no more than a scratch. He continued to swing anyways. Waspee laughed at his attempt to destroy him. After a few moments, Casey's strikes became slower and slower until they were barely there. Casey fell weakly into the sand and demorphed. He was as pale as the sand.

"Ha! You're weaker than I thought. I was stupid to think that this would actually be a challenge!" Waspee sneered and he looked down on him.

Casey looked up at the monster from the sand. "What…have you done…to me?" he asked breathing heavily.

"I'm through talking ranger! I want some action!!" Waspee screeched and made a fist preparing to strike. Before he was able to attack, a violet beam strung his arm making him stagger backwards.

"Casey!" a voice yelled from a distance.

"Whose there?!" Waspee demanded looking around.

When Casey turned around he saw Lily, along with RJ, Dominic and Theo. They all rushed to his side to help him to his feet. They were morphed and ready for a battle. He knew that if he wasn't careful, the others would see his hand, so he pulled his jacket sleeved down to cover it.

"Casey! Are you okay?" Lily asked pulling him up.

"I thought I ordered you to rest in the loft! What're you doing here alone?" RJ yelled at him.

Casey made it to his feet and dusted himself off. "I'm sorry, I knew Fran and Lily were gone and you guys had a lot of extra work missing three people. I didn't want to put too much on you guys." Casey told them. Then he began to fall back down but RJ and Theo caught him.

"Whoa, whoa! You sure you're okay?" Theo asked helping him up.

"Yeah. What happened to you?" Dominic asked walking up to him.

"This freak just overworked me, okay?" Casey said defensively.

Lily just looked at him with worried eyes. She didn't believe a word he was saying, which worried her because Casey wasn't one that usually lied. She could see in his face that something was wrong. It wasn't just a lone battle that drained him; she remembered that RJ said he collapsed while he was working. She kept her mouth shut and tried not to worry too much. She just hoped that if he _was _hiding something, that he would confide in her before it was too late.

"Enough with the chattering!! I want an actual fight—a challenge!" Waspee interrupted.

RJ quickly turned to Casey and grabbed his shoulder. "Casey, we can't fight him with you injured like this. We need to make this battle go as fast as possible, do you think that you could handle firing a shot from the Claw Cannon?" RJ asked.

Casey nodded. "Yeah. Yeah I think so."

"And RJ and I will add out special touches to it." Dominic added. "That should be enough to make him retreat for now."

"I'm waiting! Bring it rangers!" Waspee called to them getting in a fighting stance.

All of the rangers got into position to fire the weapon. "Claw Cannon!" The primary colored rangers shouted. The cannon appeared in their hands.

"Are you sure you can handle this, Casey?" Theo asked looking up to him.

"Yeah, we don't want to overwork you." Lily added looking up to him as well.

"I'm fine, let's just do this." Casey said blinking his eyes to try and focus.

Lily and Theo ran their hands against the cannon then placed their hands on it. "Charged!" They yelled on after the other.

"Ready, Dom?" RJ asked looking over to the White Ranger and opening his own Morpher.

"Oh, yeah!" Dominic said with excitement aiming his Rhino Blade forward.

"FIRE!!" the five yelled in unison, firing their weapons. Then a whole mess of energy fired forward. It was five colors at once, red, blue, yellow, violet and white. The blast sent Waspee crashing hard into the sand.

"Yeah!" Lily cheered jumping out and down.

"It worked!" Theo yelled as well. Waspee let out a pained groan as he struggled to make it to his feet. He leaned forward to the rangers. "I'll…I'll get you rangers for this!!" he screamed at them. "You'll see!!" then he teleported back to the temple.

"Power down." RJ said as he and the others demorphed. "That ought to hold him for a while." He said with a slight smile. Then he and the others turned to see Casey down on his knees. They all rushed to him.

"Let's get you back to the loft." She said sweetly. Casey just gave a weak nod in response.

A few hours later, JKP was closed for the night. All of the rangers took this as an opportunity to relax and have some down time—some more than others. Dominic was reading on the stairs, RJ caught up on his 'reality shows' that were really soap operas, Theo practiced new techniques with his tonfa and Lily tried out some new dance moves she had learned. But her heart wasn't really in it. She was mainly just going through the motions. Her moves weren't as sharp as they normally were and she didn't wear the smile she usually did. She was worried about Casey and was trying anything to get him off of her mind—it wasn't working.

When Dominic saw how off Lily was acting in her dance, he closed his book and walked over to her. "Everything okay, Lily?" he asked trying to lighten the moment.

"More or less. I just have a lot of things on my mind." She said.

"Casey?" he asked trying to get the truth out of her.

Lily looked at him sadly and gave a faint nod. "I just get the feeling there's something he's not telling us. Something bad." She said then sat in the floor.

Dominic sat beside her. "I know. I'm getting that from him too, but if there's something he isn't telling us, I'm sure there's a good reason. Master Mao didn't make him a leader for nothing." He placed his hand on her back to make her feel better. "We just have to trust him."

Lily sighed softly and looked over at him. "I just…as selfish as it may sound, I just hope that he is well enough to make it to the Spring party. I mean, I've dreamed about that night with him since…" she stopped when she saw Dominic grinning at her. "What?" she asked.

"I know how you feel Lily. I feel the same way about Fran. I've wanted to be with her from the moment I saw her. She's…special. And I know that Casey feels the same way about you." He told her with a warm smile.

Lily looked right into his eyes. "Really?" She asked hopefully.

Dominic chuckled and nodded his head. "Without a doubt." He said standing. "Just try not to worry. He'll be alright."

"I hope so." Lily said looking up at him. "Thanks, Dom. You've really made me feel better. Have you been getting advice lessons from RJ?" she asked with a smile.

Dominic laughed softly and looked at her. "No. I just know what it's like to be in love." He said then returned to the spot on the stairs to continue reading. Lily just sat there and smiled at Dominic's words.

Meanwhile, Casey was taking a shower while the others thought he was asleep. He let the hot water pour over him as he thought about everything. His whole body ached; it was hard for him to stand. His hand felt like it was on fire.

"What am I going to do?" He thought to himself. He closed his eyes to try and shut out the pain he felt. "Waspee harmed all of those innocent people and I know I'm not far behind them…but it'll be worth it to keep Lily safe. After all…I think I'm falling in love with her."


	8. Unrecognizable Reflection

Waspee made his way back to Dai Shi's temple. As he flew above he noticed Dai Shi training with some Rin Shi in the forest surrounding the temple. Waspee landed behind him not wanting Dai Shi to see him—but he heard him. He didn't exactly want to tell the Lion Master that he had recently failed in defeating the rangers.

"I hope you have good news for me, Waspee." Dai Shi said, not even turning to look at him, just attacking the many Rin Shi that encroached on him.

"Well, that depends on what you count as 'good news'." Waspee answered nervously.

Dai Shi stopped training and turned to the giant wasp. He didn't look pleased. His glare alone made Waspee feel as if he'd turn to stone.

"I-I infected most of the city with my army's venom, as I've told you before, but when I attempted to finish off the Red Ranger, his friends showed up and they got away. S-sorry." He stuttered.

"Why didn't you handle the others when they got in your way?" Dai Shi asked through his teeth.

Waspee backed up in fear of what Dai Shi might do to him. "W-well, m-my venom can't affect them in their ranger suits and they're being extra careful to avoid my wasps. But don't worry…this is far from over." He said gradually sounding more confident as he thought over his plan.

"Don't speak to me in riddles, underling. Cut to the chase." Dai Shi snapped at him.

"Let's just say, with what I've done to the red one, this dance will be a night the rangers will never forget." Waspee said with and evil grin.

It was the day before the dance and JKP was closed today giving Fran and Lily the perfect opportunity to practice make-up and hair tricks. The men had other plans. RJ sat at his workbench working on a small weapon that resembled a laser shooter while Dominic and Theo sparred.

"So, RJ, what is this little invention you're working on?" Theo asked dodging a punch from Dominic.

RJ removed his thick goggles from his face and looked to them. "It's just a little something to use if that wasp freak decides to show his face again." He answered.

"What does it do?" Dominic asked.

"Well, I haven't had a chance to handle the fine tuning of it yet, but it should emit a spray that Waspee won't be able to stand." RJ answered pulling the goggles back down on his head and continuing his work.

Casey watched Dominic and Theo fighting and realized that he missed feeling that strong. "Hey, can I spare with the winner?" he asked.

"No." RJ answered for them. "You need to relax right now. You've had two incidents in one day and I don't want you to have another at the party." RJ said sternly. He didn't really mean to sound so harsh, he was thinking about what was best for his student. And he did have a point; yesterday was a really rough day for Casey—not to mention several Ocean Bluff citizens as well.

"Yeah…right." Casey responded sadly. "Hey, you all have your tuxes already right? I was just going to pick mine up." He said.

"I've had mine for three weeks." Theo said. Then Dominic, Casey and RJ all paused to stare at him strangely. "What? So I got my tux a little early, so?" he said defensively. "I wanna look good." He added.

"Aaaanyways," Casey said, "RJ? Dom? How about you two?"

"I got mine two days ago." RJ answered still working on his weapon.

"Yesterday." Dominic answered simply.

"Wow." Casey said wide-eyed. "I guess I should go get mine. I already was measured so it's just a matter of trying it on." Casey told them as he stood.

"Take the jeep." RJ said throwing him the car keys. "You need to save as much energy as you can." When RJ tossed the keys, Casey, not thinking, caught them with his right hand. When he did, it felt like a thousand pins shot into his hand. He wanted to scream, but he managed not too.

"Th-thanks, RJ." Casey winced. "I'll be back in less than an hour."

Casey drove the jeep to the town's tuxedo shop. Like he had told the others, he had already picked out his tux, it was just a matter of making sure it fit him. When he got there and entered the shop, he noticed that the clerk looked very tired as well as pale in complexion.

He stood up to the counter. "Hi. I'm here to pick up my tux." He said looking at the man with concern. He knew that he was going through the same thing he himself was.

"Name?" the man asked groggily.

"Casey Rhodes." He answered. The man turned sluggishly to the many tuxes behind him. He searched through the tags until he found the right one and handed it to Casey.

"Here." The man said leaning on his hand and closing his eyes.

"…Thanks." Casey answered grabbing the tux then heading into the dressing rooms to try it on.

The tux was black and gray. Black coat, a dark gray vest and tie, shiny black shoes, with a black undershirt with matching slacks. The suit fit him perfectly. When he turned to look in the mirror, he couldn't believe what he saw. Dominic was right the other day, he _was_ pale and sick looking. But deep down, he knew what was going to happen soon and wasn't that surprised after all. He saw in his reflection that his hand was badly swollen and very red.

"If Lily sees this, she'll know what happened. She and the others are already on to me that something's wrong. I have to cover this up somehow." He thought to himself. Then he changed back into his red training jacket and black pants and headed back to the counter to pay. Just looking at this guy made him feel even worse. "Um…" he asked hesitantly, "Do you have any black gloves to match this?"

The clerk didn't speak an answer. He just turned around a grabbed a small plastic bag that held two black gloves and tossed it on the counter.

Casey grabbed them and looked at the man. "…Thanks."

After he paid for his ensemble, Casey hopped back into the jeep and drove back to the loft. When he got there he saw the others straightening up the loft except for RJ, who was still working on his mysterious weapon. When he entered he placed his tux behind RJ's chair so Lily didn't see it.

"I'm back." He announced. He saw Theo mopping, Lily dusting and Dominic doing dished. "You guys are cleaning?' he asked.

"Yeah, we're all antsy and can't sit still because we're so excited. So you got your tux?" Lily asked walking over to him. Casey nodded with a smile.

"Great! That means we all have our duds for the dance!" Lily cheered.

RJ stepped away from his work desk and looked at the tux behind the chair. "Nice color choice, man." He said happily.

"Thanks, RJ." Casey replied. "Is there anything I can do to help you guys?"

"I need some help with the dishes—the dishwasher broke again." Dominic told him.

Casey wanted to just tell him no right then and there. He knew that the hot, soapy water would kill his hand, but he was determined not to let the others discover what was going on with him. "I'm on it." He replied. He walked over to the sink and looked at the water. He closed his eyes and started to wash the dishes trying with every second not to focus on his hand.


	9. The Wrong Truth

The day of the 'Bring in the Spring' dance had finally arrived. When Casey awoke, his whole body ached. It felt hard for him to move but when he finally made it out of bed, he glimpsed at the clock and was shocked see that it was well past noon. He walked into the loft to find Theo, Dominic and RJ working on the weapon. Fran and Lily were nowhere to be found. Casey walked slowly into the room pulling down his sleeve to hide his hand. The other rangers turned to him when they saw that he was finally up.

"Good morning, sunshine!" Dominic joked.

"Did you sleep well? You've been out for about…" Theo began looking at his watch, "fourteen hours."

"Sorry." Casey said scanning the room. "Where's Lily and Fran?" he asked descending the stairs.

"Lily went over to Fran's house to get ready for the dance and hang out. You know how girls can be." Dominic laughed.

Casey gave a forced chuckle. "If it's okay, I'm going to go for a run. I have a lot of things on my mind and I'd like to clear my head." He said.

"Don't worry, Lily won't care if you're a bad dancer." Theo teased him.

Casey gave another fake chuckle. "Right. I shouldn't be too long. Call me if you need me for anything." He said grabbing his red hoodie from a chair. He walked by the weapon RJ worked on before he left. "How's the weapon coming along?" he asked him.

RJ sighed and removed his goggles as he stepped back from the workbench. "Pretty well. It should be enough to damage him pretty badly, as for destroying him I'm not so sure."

"How's it work?" Casey asked.

"Well, I managed to capture one of his army wasps and get it's venom from it without harm. I put the venom in the pistol and when I fire it, it should mix with this spray I created and work against him." RJ explained.

"Oh." Casey said. "Good luck with that." He said then left to go for his run. It's not that he didn't care about the weapon; it was just the fact that by the time RJ finished it, he may no longer be around.

RJ watched Casey leave. He gripped onto the railings harder than he ever had. It was like it was hard for him to stand let alone go for a run. He thought that he'd be bouncing off the walls with excitement; after all, Lily did agree to go to the dance with him. RJ knew that the two had had a crush on one another ever since they'd known him, so the way Casey was acting made now sense. It was at that moment RJ became determined to figure out what was going on with him. So he ran out of the loft to follow him.

Casey headed to the park to go for his run. As hard as it was for him he still pushed himself to run as fast as he could. He just wanted to shut out everything around him—except for Lily. All he wanted was to have at least one dance with her—just one. At that moment, he didn't know exactly what he was running from, all he knew was that he wanted to escape.

"Why is this happening? It shouldn't be." He thought as he ran faster. "I should be pumped for this party tonight. Tonight was going to be the night I finally tell Lily how I feel about her, but I can't! I can't tell anybody anything or she'll be in danger!!" he thought in rage. He was now sprinting. Eventually he ran so fast and so hard that he ran out of steam. Luckily there was am empty bench up ahead. He quickly sat down to catch his breath. He ran his fingers through his hair. "This is a nightmare." He said aloud.

"What is?" A familiar voice said. Casey looked up to see that RJ had followed him. He sat next to him.

"RJ?" he asked between breaths, "What're you doing here?"

"I followed you because I need to talk to you." He said.

"About what?" Casey asked.

"About what's been going on with you lately." RJ told him.

"What do you mean?" Casey asked. His mind racing thinking that RJ had figured out his secret.

"You're white as a sheet, you keep falling asleep while you're working, not to mention your battle skills have fallen." RJ said.

Casey felt his eyes widen he was about to panic. He had to think up something—fast. "I'm fine, really." He lied.

"Really?" RJ asked not at all convinced. "It really doesn't seem like it, man. If you had a problem…you'd tell us, right?" Casey didn't answer; he just closed his eyes wishing all of this away. "Come on, buddy, what is it?" RJ asked in almost a pleading tone. He hated seeing the person most like his brother suffering like this.

Casey thought over what he should do at this point. For half a second he considered confiding in RJ. He _was_ making a weapon that could potentially destroy Waspee, but it wasn't perfected and he wasn't going to risk Lily's life. So he made something up.

"It's just…" Casey began, then he looked at his hand secretly, confirming that he should keep his secret, "I'm in love with Lily and I'm terrified to tell her." He said. It was the truth, just not the truth RJ was searching for.

"Really?" RJ asked with relief in his voice. But he still wasn't 100% convinced. "So, if that's the reason, why are you so frail and weak all the time?" RJ asked.

"I'm horrified to tell her—I haven't ate in days and my mind's just been so scattered." Casey told him. "Pretty dumb, huh?" he said with a small laugh.

"Dude," RJ began patting Casey's shoulder, "She's going to the dance with you and is spending all day at Fran's getting ready so she can look perfect for you. Believe me, you have no worries." RJ told him.

"Really?" he asked, wishing that he really did have no worries.

"Positive. You're all she talks about. She must have asked me five hundred times if you were going to ask her to dance." RJ said with a chuckle.

"Wow." Casey said, feeling happier than he had in days.

RJ stood up and gave Casey a stern look. "So start eating again and try not to worry as much. Everything will be fine. That's an order!" he said pointing at him.

"Gotcha." Casey said with a phony smile. He hoped everything would be fine, but it didn't look as if it would be. RJ then began to head back to JKP. "Hey, RJ!" Casey shouted to him. RJ stopped and turned to him raising his brows. "Thanks for worrying about me…it means a lot."

"Hey, you rangers are my family. You know you guys can always count on me. I'm you're teacher, but more than that, I'm a friend." RJ said. Casey nodded, then RJ headed home.

Casey remained on the bench for a moment. "I'm sorry, RJ…" he said softly. "I'm sorry everyone." Then he closed his eyes and leaned back hoping that his lies didn't cause harm to anyone.


	10. Bring in the Spring

The big night was finally here. All of the rangers decided to get ready and meet at JKP, then head to the party together. Fran and Lily were running late making their final touches on their hair and gowns. The men threw on their tuxes and fixed their hair. They all looked very handsome.

RJ donned a dark purple tux with a light purple tie and undershirt. His hair was combed back nicely. Theo wore a royal blue tuxedo. His tie was a striped light and dark blue with a black vest. Dominic had on a white tux with a black vest and undershirt and a white tie.

Casey was still upstairs in the loft making his finishing touches. He looked at himself in the mirror in his back and gray tux. He had on everything but his gloves. He just stared at his reflection thinking to himself that this may be the last night he sees himself, or anyone for that matter. As he looked at himself, he wished that he had gotten a white tux like Dominic to help hide his paleness. After he shook that thought away, he spiked his hair up nicely because he remembered overhearing Lily saying once that she loved it when guys wore their hair that way. He looked better but he still had bags under his eyes, so he washed his face over and over again to try and get rid of them. It finally came time to put on his gloves. He shuttered at the thought of putting them on because his hand hurt him so badly that he wanted to scream.

He took the gloves and first placed one on his good hand. Then he closed his eyes and slid on the second. The gloves hid the swelling nicely. He grabbed a small box off of the table beside him and prepared to head downstairs. He felt exhausted; it was all he could do to stand. He hoped that when he saw Lily, this feeling would pass. One thought raced over and over again in his mind:

He wanted to have one dance with Lily tonight—just one.

Casey walked downstairs and into the dining room to find Theo, RJ and Dominic.

"Well, well, someone looks nice. Especially me, ha ha!" RJ laughed as he looked at Casey and his friends.

"Um…thanks, I guess." Casey said with a smile.

"Don't worry, Casey," Dominic said patting him on the shoulder, "That's a compliment in RJ language." He joked.

"Yes, but no one looks better than the T-Meister!" Theo stated popping his collar and doing a spin.

Casey laughed at Theo's dancing—or lack there of. "I'm glad you're DJ-ing and dancing." He teased pointing at him.

RJ noticed Casey's gloves. "What's with the gloves, man? Are you trying to out-fancy me?" he said waving his arms about.

Casey tried to think of an excuse as quickly as he could. "I…uh—It was Lily's idea. She thought it'd be nice for me to wear gloves that match he dress." He lied.

RJ thought back and remembered that the girls wanted their dresses to be a surprise. "But I thought that—" RJ began but was interrupted when Lily and Fran busted through the doors.

"We're here!" Fran announced as she and Lily entered.

She and Lily looked more beautiful than the others had ever seen them. Fran had on her midnight blue gown and silver shoes, she held a small matching clutch purse in her hands, and her hair was straightened with a silver clip of a butterfly pinning her bangs back. Light blue eyes shadow swept across her eyes.

Lily entered with her black and yellow mixture dress on. Her black-strapped shoes barely peaked out from underneath her long gown. Her hair was in an up-do with curly ringlets hanging down around her pink cheeks. A black barrette held her hair up with small sparkles scattered throughout.

Then men's jaw's dropped when they saw them. When Casey saw Lily, he thought she looked like that of an angel. When she looked over at him, he wanted to tell her right then and there everything he felt for her, how he wanted for him to be the only one she looked at like that. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that her dress was black.

"Hi, Casey." She said as she walked over to him. "You look handsome."

"You look, so beautiful. Really, really beautiful." He told her in awe.

"Aren't you sweet. Thanks." She answered.

"You girls really went all out didn't you? Very nice!" RJ said as he looked at them.

"Thank you, RJ, but I already have a date." Fran said walking over to Dominic and grabbing his arm.

"Oh, too bad." RJ joked with her.

"Thanks for the compliment, RJ. You boys look very nice yourself." Lily said with a bright smile.

Dominic pulled a small golden box from behind his back and handed it to Fran.

"What's this?" she asked with a suspicious smile. She slowly opened the box to find a small royal blue flower corset. "Oh, Dom, it's so pretty! Thank you!" she beamed. She took it from the box and Dominic placed it on her wrist. It matched her dress perfectly.

"My pleasure." Dominic replied with a small kiss on the cheek.

"Lily…" Casey said handing her a small golden box as well.

"Casey? You didn't have to do this." Lily said taking the box and opening it. Inside was a pale yellow corset matching her dress as well. Casey took the flowers and placed it on her wrist.

"I wanted too." He told her with a smile.

"Well, it's really beautiful." She said looking at the corset.

"Doesn't hold a candle to you." He said looking at her sweetly. Lily looked at him for a moment wanting to tell him right there how she felt about him.

RJ looked at the corsets the girls had and wondered how they matched the dresses so perfectly. "How did you guys know the color gowns the girls had? I thought it was supposed to be a secret." He asked. What he really wanted to know was why was Casey wearing gloves? Was he hiding something?

"Well, I told Dom that my dress was midnight blue the other day. I was just so excited about my dress that I had to tell him." Fran explained. After she answered, RJ turned to Lily and Casey.

"I mentioned to Casey that I wanted yellow in my dress. He knows it's my favorite color." She said smiling at Casey.

"Are we ready to head out?" Theo asked the team.

"Yes-siree! Let's go and get our party on!" RJ yelled. He decided to shake off his suspicions and just let his students enjoy their night. He headed out the door with Theo, Dominic and Fran following him. Fran and Dominic linked arms as they walked out.

"Ready Casey?" Lily asked turning to him. She linked arms with him as well and the two started to leave. But Casey suddenly stopped, making her stop as well.

"Lily…I have something to tell you." He told her.

"What is it?" she asked worriedly. The look on his face wasn't good. He still didn't look well and it scared her.

He wanted to tell her everything—that he was in love with her, that she was everything he was looking for, and that he may not be here tomorrow. He almost had the words out when suddenly; he just couldn't—not now.

"Thanks for coming with me tonight." He said.

Lily smiled at him. "I was about to tell you the same thing." He grinned at her, and then they took one another's arms again and left with the others.

The six colorful individuals walked into the dance hall. Long tables with white tablecloths were all around covered with fancy foods. Flowers of every sort were in long vases at the guest tables. Rose petals were scattered all over the white marble floor with dim lighting all around. The only light there was came from the strings of pink lights dangling from the ceiling like stars. Flowers were all around them—like a flower paradise.

"Wow…" Lily said wide-eyed when she walked into the beautiful place.

"Snazzy!!" RJ said impressed with the set-up. He picked up a rose petal from the floor and examined it as he spoke.

"It's gorgeous!" Fran exclaimed as she looked around at everything.

"They really went all out this year, huh?" Theo stated nodding his head impressed.

"I'll say! Come on, Fran, let's check out the food!" Dominic said pulling her along to the food-covered tables.

"Okay!" Fran giggled.

Casey's vision was blurred and couldn't really see much. He didn't know how much longer he was going to last but tried to fight it. "This_ is_ nice. Very romantic." He said turning to his date. Somehow looking at her made him feel better.

"Yeah, but does anybody else find it odd that there's hardly anyone here?" RJ asked suddenly noticing that was once a three or four hundred attendance count, was now reduced to about seventy-five.

"Dai Shi and his latest freak." Theo grumbled. This made Casey's eyes grow wide in fear. He shifted nervously knowing that his fate was the same as these people that were missing.

"We _will_ find a way to save them. I hate that we have to wait for him to stop hiding before we can do anything." Lily said angrily.

"This isn't over yet—not by a long shot. But there doesn't seem to be anything we can do tonight. I have my new weapon with me if he _does_ decide to make an appearance. But for tonight, try to enjoy yourselves." RJ told them. He knew that they had a rough battle ahead of them, and that they should have fun while they can.

"I know I will." Lily said snuggling into Casey's arm.

"Me too." Casey added felling genuinely serene at that moment. He knew that Lily was there beside him and was safe.

"Well, I'm DJ-ing tonight so if you'll excuse me, I'll get some music going for you all." Theo said cheerfully as he went behind his turntables. He played some light upbeat music to kick things off.

"I'm off to dazzle the ladies. If you need me, I'll be over there!" RJ said pointing off to the right where a young blonde and redhead stood talking. He moseyed over to them.

Lily laughed at RJ's confidence then turned to Casey. "Do you want to get a table?" she asked.

Casey held out his arm so she could link on to it. "Let's go." As they made their way over to the table, Casey felt that lightheadedness come over him once more. He grabbed on to a table that shook as he fell into it. He luckily broke his fall. Lily grabbed his arm to help catch him.

"Are you alright there?" She asked quickly.

Casey stood and steadied the table, then turned to her. "Yeah, I'm fine. My shoes are just slippery against the floor." He lied. He hated lying to her, it made him feel even worse.

"Oh…you're sure?" She asked him again.

"I'm sure. No worries. Come on, let's go have some fun." He said extending his arm again.

Lily put her arm through his. "Great!" She said excitedly with a smile. And it was at that moment Casey realized that she had the most beautiful smile he had ever seen, and he'd give anything to see that same smile tomorrow.

Meanwhile, in Dai Shi's temple, Dai Shi felt himself growing more impatient. He paced the throne room floors, his cloak flowing behind him in his rage. Waspee watched him from across the room.

"Why hasn't the Red Ranger fallen yet? It should have been done by now!" Dai Shi growled.

Waspee walked up to him confidently. "Relax, Dai Shi. Most of the city has been taken care of; it's only a matter of time for that pest. He can't fight it much longer."

Dai Shi stopped pacing and walked up right into Waspee's face. "You'd better hope so or I'll swat you myself." He warned the insect.

Waspee got into Dai Shi's face right back. "You won't have too." He retaliated. Dai Shi just glared into the daring wasp's eyes. "All we have to do is wait a little longer and we'll have our victory." He added. Dai Shi didn't answer him; he just stormed off and left the throne room. The large doors slammed loudly behind him.


	11. Love Story

A few hours passed at the dance. Everything seemed to be going well. They all had their special dinner and danced the night away to all of Theo's fast paced songs. RJ chatted up the ladies, Dominic and Fran laughed and flirted at their table holding hands with one another, Theo was jamming at the turntables not seeming to mind that fact that they were his date. After Casey and Lily danced to the jazzy song, the two just looked lovingly at one another, just enjoying one another's company.

Then Casey noticed something outside. "Hey," he said pointing forward, "There's a balcony out there. Do you want to head out there and be alone for awhile?" he asked.

"I'd like that." Lily answered. Then the two made their way out to the balcony. No one was out there but them. The balcony was huge with a stone floor and railing. Vines crawled up the walls behind them. The moon was right in front of them beaming bright in the night sky. The music somehow made it's way to out there giving them their own little dance just for them.

"This is incredible!" Lily exclaimed walking around looking at the moon. Stars were sprinkled across the sky. Casey just looked at her in the moonlight, savoring every moment he had with her. The moonlight somehow made her even more beautiful in his eyes. "This night has been amazing! And this makes it even better!" she said in awe.

"I'm glad you love it. It's nice to get out here away from everything for a while." He said looking around at everything.

Lily turned to him with a sweet look on her face. "I'm glad you came tonight, Casey. I know you haven't felt the greatest lately."

Casey walked closer to her. "You're worth it, Lily…you're worth anything." He said.

Then 'Love Story' came on over the speakers. This was the first slower song Theo had played all night. When he noticed the song he held out his hand to Lily.

"May I have this dance?" he asked with a romantic smile.

She took his hand in hers. "Of course you can." Then they walked to the center of the balcony together.

'We were both young when I first saw you. I close my eyes and the flashback starts , I'm standing there on a balcony in summer air…'

As the song began, the two started out just standing with each other. He brushed her hair away from her cheek and stroked her hair. They looked in one another's eyes. He grabbed one of her hands gently and she placed her other hand on his shoulder and his on her waist.

'See the lights, see the party, the ball gowns, see you make your way through the crowd and say 'hello' Little did I know…'

The two just began to dance slowly in a circle just looking at one another.

'That you were Romeo, you were throwing pebbles and my daddy said, 'Stay away from Juliet.' And I was crying on the staircase begging you please don't go…'

The two picked up their speed a little bit to keep up with the music. After a moment, they changed direction then Casey extended his arm so Lily could spin.

'And I said, 'Romeo, take me somewhere we can be alone. I'll be waiting, all there's left to do is run. You'll be the prince and I'll be the princess. It's a love story, baby just say 'Yes.''

Lily spun out twice at pace with the song. When she spun back into him he picked her up and spun slowly as he brought her down. After she was on the ground the two slid out from one another then walked slowly back to each other. Lily spun again, facing away from him. She slid down a little then spun back to face him.

'So I sneak out to the garden to see you. We keep quiet 'cause we're dead if they knew, so close your eyes—escape this town for a little while…'Cause you were Romeo I was a scarlet letter and my daddy said 'Stay away from Juliet.' But you were everything to me, I was begging you please don't go…'

The two stood very closely to one another and each raised one hand. They touched one another's hand and slowly brought them back down with the music. Then they started spinning slowly again as they did before. They touched their heads and closed their eyes in the moment. Then she laid her head against his chest as he held her and they continued spinning slowly.

'And I said, 'Romeo, take me somewhere we can be alone. I'll be waiting, all there's left to do is run. You'll be the prince and I'll be the princess. It's a love story baby just say. 'Yes.''

They picked up their pace with the song and separated from once another. They slid in a box shape around one another four times, never breaking eye contact. Then they met in the middle once more. Lily spun quickly into a fast dip in his arms, and then came back up to be face to face with Casey. They took a step out from one another and then back in.

'Romeo, save me, they're trying to tell me how to feel. This love is difficult—but it's real. Don't be afraid, we'll make it out of this mess. It's a love story, baby just say, "Yes."

The two grabbed one another's hands as they spun around waltzing with one another. Casey gently stroked Lily's arm. And even though he was wearing gloves, she felt the love in his touch. As the musical interlude began they danced and spun all over the balcony.

'But I got tired of waiting, wondering if you were ever coming around. My faith in you was fading, when I met you on the outskirts of town.'

The two slowed down and Lily leaned back into Casey's chest and they swayed slowly. He stroked her hair gently and closed his eyes, as she did. Just his touch made her feel serene. Then they looked back into one another's eyes. No words, their eyes said what they were feeling.

'And I said, 'Romeo, save me, I've been feeling so alone. I keep waiting for you but you never come. Is this in my head? I don't know what to think.' He knelt to the ground and pulled out a ring and said, 'Marry me, Juliet; you'll never have to be alone. I love you and that's all I really know. I talked to your dad; go pick out a white dress. It's a love story baby just say, 'Yes.''

They separated from one another one last time and slowly but romantically circle one another with the music. When they met one another again, he picked her up and slowly spun her down once more. When she reached the ground she took four steps back and he four steps forward, they paused for a moment and then she took his hand and spun around. Then she spun twice into him. They slid around each other four times again as they did before. When they met in the middle they waltz around the entire balcony again.

'We were both young when I first saw you.'

Their quick waltz ended with Casey dipping Lily as the music stopped. He looked at her and she looked at him. He leaned in and kissed her, the moon draped behind them.

Meanwhile in the hall, Dominic and Fran danced slowly with one another.

"You really look beautiful tonight, Fran." Dominic said looking at her lovingly.

"Thanks, Dom. I'm having a wonderful time. I'm really glad you asked me to go with you. It means a lot." She answered.

"Me too. Do you really mean it? You're glad I asked you?" Dominic said.

"Yeah, to be honest I didn't think you would." She said.

Dominic stopped dancing. "Are you joking? I was worried you were going to say no, that's what took me so long." He said petting her shoulder.

"Well, you were just in time." She smiled.

He smiled back at her as they continued their dance. "Can I be honest now? There's no one I'd rather be here with tonight than you." He said sweetly.

This time, Fran stopped dancing and looked at him. "Really?" she asked.

Dominic didn't answer her with words; instead he leaned in and kissed her softly on the lips. "Does that answer your question?" he said pushing her hair away from her shoulder.

"Loud and clear." She replied. Then she laid her head against his chest and they swayed to the music.


	12. The Party's Over

Back on the balcony, Casey and Lily walked over to the stone railing and gazed at the full moon in front of them.

"It's a beautiful night, isn't it?" Lily asked as she focused on the moon.

"Sure is." He answered. "It's a beautiful night to have a party like this." Then suddenly he felt more worse than he ever had. Everything was so blurred that he could barely make the moon out. He tried not to panic and remain calm.

Lily turned to him. "I'm really glad I'm here with you tonight, Casey."

"Me too. I wish every night could be like this." He said staring forward trying to get some of his vision back.

"Casey," Lily began, "there's been something that I've wanted to tell you pretty much since the day we became rangers."

"Really? Because there's something I've been wanting to tell you too." He replied. He felt his breaths coming quicker and harder. His whole body ached beyond belief. All he wanted to do in this moment was tell her how much he loves her. He felt himself sweating and was unable to really think straight.

Lily really looked at him and knew something was wrong. "You can go first. Are you alright?" she asked as she took his hand. She felt that his hand was very much swollen and realized that that was the reason her wore gloves. He winced as she touched him and pulled away quickly. "What's—" she began. He placed his hands on her shoulders.

"Lily, listen to me. I…I don't have much time." He said hastily.

"What is it? You're scaring me." She said with a frightened voice.

He paused and just looked in her eyes. "God, Lily, there's so much I want to tell you." He said panting.

"Then tell me." She said sweetly stroking his hair.

"Lily…I…I'm—" he started but a pained cry cut off his words. He heard a loud buzzing in his head. He gripped his head as he leaned against the rail.

Lily got leaned next to him. "Casey?! What's going on? What's wrong?" she pleaded for him to tell her.

Casey gently took her head in his hands. "Promise me something, Lily." He said weakly.

"Anything." Lily answered with wide eyes.

"Promise me that you'll stay away from Dai Shi and his monster, okay? RJ and the others can handle him. He's more powerful than you think." He said shakily.

Lily gave a slight nod before she answered. "I promise." She told him.

Then Casey fell forward but Lily was able to catch him. "Lily," he said with labored breaths, "I'm so sorry."

Lily just felt panic. What was he sorry for and what was happening? She gently laid him down on the ground so he could rest. Lily pulled her Morpher from her purse. She didn't even put them on she just pressed the button and began shouting into it. "RJ!! RJ get out here now!!" she yelled in panic. She looked at Casey; he was just staring up at the sky, like he wasn't even here anymore. She didn't know where he was.

She grabbed his face and turned it toward herself. "Casey? Casey, please stay with me! Please!" she begged.

"Lily…" he said softly, and then his eyes slowly closed.

RJ had the two beautiful women surrounding him and talking him up. He heard Lily's cries through his Wolf Morpher and immediately rushed out to the balcony. Theo and Dominic noticed RJ suddenly leaving. Theo put a CD on the stereo, then he Dominic and Fran all followed RJ outside.

When they made it out there they saw that Casey was lying on the ground and Lily panicking beside him. She leaned down to him holding his head in her hands.

"Casey?" she cried out. RJ rushed to Casey's side and began to look him over. "RJ, what happened to him?!" she yelled. RJ pressed two fingers against his neck to see if he showed any sign of a pulse.

"His pulse is really weak, it's barely there. We have to get him back to the loft and fast!" RJ stated. "Lily, did you see what may have caused this?" he asked her with haste.

"He seemed no different than he has been the past couple of days. He seemed tired and he wanted me not to touch his hand." Lily explained.

RJ looked quickly to her. "Which hand was it?" he asked.

"His right one." She answered pointing to it.

RJ picked up Casey's right hand and slowly pulled the glove off. He found that his hand was severely swollen and very, very red. Dominic, Fran and Theo all ran up to them when they made it there.

"What _is _that?" Theo asked when he saw Casey's hand. Fran placed her hands over her mouth and Dominic just stared at it in shock.

RJ continued to examine Casey's hand for a moment. After a few seconds, he gently placed it back on the floor. "It's a sting from one of Waspee's wasps." He said with a blunt tone.

"What? Then that means…" Lily began.

"That it's been eating away his life force this whole time." RJ finished for her.

"But how could this have happened and how could we not have noticed?" Lily asked worriedly.

Then the team really thought back and tried to remember if he had said anything about it.

"_I just got a cramp in my hand is all…"_

"_I just sprained it when I was sparring with RJ earlier…go figure…" _

"_Dai Shi's freak just overworked me okay!"_

It was then when everything clicked. How blind they had all been. Casey was clearly suffering and for one reason or another he was keeping it to himself.

RJ stood and kicked the balcony rail with fury. "Damn it!! All of the signs were there and we didn't connect it! Why didn't he tell us?" he yelled.

Then an all too familiar voice spoke. "I believe _I_ can answer that question!" the rangers knew right when they heard that buzz-like voice who it was, and it made them all the more angry. Waspee flew down and landed on the balcony with the rangers.

"What did you do to our friend?!" Dominic yelled taking a step forward.

"Ha! I really am surprised! I didn't think he'd keep his end of the bargain!" Waspee laughed as he looked at the fallen ranger. Fran, Dominic and Theo pulled Casey to the other side of the balcony to keep him from any further harm.

"What're you talking about, Waspee?" Lily shouted in a rage.

"Why not? I'll tell you." Waspee stated. RJ and Lily stood their ground waiting for their answer. "Let's just say, Yellow Ranger, that your little boy toy was stung by one of my minions." He laughed.

"When?!" she shouted back at him. "When did you do this to him?!"

"I'm getting to that, patience, patience. I believe it was the first day that I released my wasps on Ocean Bluff. And when you all demanded I tell you the effects the wasps had, I believe he wasn't there. I guess he thought a wasp sting wasn't something to whine about. Fool." Waspee snickered.

"Get to the point!" RJ shouted at him.

Waspee sighed and then continued. "After he arrived, I ran off. You all separated off to find me. As it turns out, he was the one who finally did and that's when I told him what my little minions are capable of." He went on.

"But…why didn't he tell us that he found you, and what had happened to him?" Lily asked softly as she turned to look at him. She stared at him on the ground as she listened to Waspee speak.

"He's sweet on you, Yellow Ranger. And I used that to my advantage. I told him that if he told even one person about what had happened to him, I'd destroy you in his place." Waspee sneered.

"What?" Lily whimpered as she fell to her knees.

"Pretty clever, huh?" Waspee laughed. "He gave up his life to save yours. I really don't get why anyone would do that, but then again you are _humans._"

"Why would he do that?" Lily spoke tearfully.

"I guess he _cares_ for you or something. Ew." Waspee answered in disgust. "But now he's gone and there's nothing you can do to keep me from destroying _you_!!" Waspee shouted then he made a sudden leapt at RJ.

RJ grabbed Waspee's arms and was able to hold him steady for a moment. "Lily, Fran! Take Casey back to the loft! We'll meet you there as soon as we can!" He yelled as he held the monster off.

"Got it!" Fran answered quickly. Lily just stood there silently for a moment, then finally nodded and grabbed Casey with Fran and left.

RJ, Dominic and Theo all lined up beside one another. "You're going to pay for all the people you've hurt!" Dominic shouted pointing at the fiend.

"Especially our friend and leader!" Theo added.

"This is going to stop here and now!" RJ shouted with them.

"Please! I've already destroyed one of you, the rest of you will be a breeze!" Waspee cackled.

RJ turned to his teammates with a serious look on his face. "Dom, Theo, we really have to hurry. Casey was in real danger when I examined him. If we don't hurry he may…" RJ trailed off hating the thought of what could happen if they were too late. "We just have to make this fast so I can treat him, all right?" he continued.

"Got it!" Dominic responded.

"We'll do our best, RJ!" Theo added confidently.

"Bring it on rangers!!" Waspee taunted.

"You asked for it." RJ said, then he and his teammates activated their Morphers.

"Jungle Beast, Spirit Unleash!" the three shouted and they were morphed into their ranger forms.

"We've had enough of you and your troublesome army!" Theo shouted at the beast as he and his friends began to circle Waspee.

"You're going to regret ever messing with us!" Dominic said pointing at him.

"Focus you tow! Remember, we have to hurry here!" RJ said with haste.

"Enough smack talk! Let's get this battle underway!" Waspee shouted. "Remember this?" he asked evilly. Then he began to create the horrible deafening buzzing noise again.

The rangers all had tight grips on their helmets as they staggered about the balcony.

"I don't…make the same mistakes…twice!" RJ groaned as he pulled the pistol weapon from his jacket. When he pulled the trigger, green smoke shot out from the pistol with great force.

"What's that?" Waspee muttered to himself as he slowly began to back away from the smoke. Waspee's back hit the railings making the buzzing cease. He had nowhere left to run. RJ, Theo and Dominic and heaved a sigh of relief while standing and getting their bearings once more.

"What _is _that stuff, RJ?" Theo asked while he watched Waspee cringe from it.

"Just something to buy us a little time. It's only temporary so we need to go now!" RJ told them. And with the green fog hiding them, the three were able to make their escape.

Meanwhile, Waspee seemed tormented by the green smoke. He wanted nothing to do with it because it repelled him in an uncontrollable way.

"Grr!! Those sneaky rats!!" He seethed. "I'll get them for this. For now just let them suffer while their leader fades away." Waspee snickered before he flew away into the night sky. The party was over.


	13. Important Things to Say

When RJ, Theo and Dominic made it back to the loft with Casey, Lily and Fran. They noticed that Casey was completely unconscious at this point. Lily had laid him on a long black bed that raised him a little so he could better breathe. He was in his black uniform pants with his red t-shirt and black undershirt. Lily wanted him to be comfortable whether he could feel it or not.

"How is he?" RJ asked as me made his way to Casey.

"The same as before." Lily answered sadly.

RJ pulled a chair beside him and grabbed his hand to examine it. When he knew what the problem was he pulled out his medical supplies. He rubbed alcohol on Casey's swollen hand then pulled out a syringe. He injected his hand with something Lily couldn't identify.

"What're you doing, RJ?" Lily asked walking up to him as he worked.

"Injecting him with some morphine. If he wakes up while I'm doing what I'm about to, chances are it would take up the rest of his energy due to the pain he'd feel." RJ explained putting away the syringe and grabbing some tweezers next.

"What are you about to do?" Theo asked watching him.

"The stinger is still in his hand. Quite deeply in there I might add. If I don't remove it, it'll just keep releasing venom until it his life energy depletes to zero." RJ told them. Before he began he turned to Lily. "I wouldn't recommend watching this." He told her.

That's when Fran came up to her and pulled her away from RJ. "It'll be alright, okay? Just try to think about happy things." She said. Fran knew what she said sounded lame but it was all she could think of at the moment. Lily just closed her eyes and let Fran hug her.

After what felt like a lifetime had passed, RJ finally was able to remove the stinger and threw it in a medical pan. "Got it!" he said happily. As he went to sew up Casey's hand, Theo and Dominic looked at the stinger.

"Whoa…" Theo said in awe.

"How could he stand that without going crazy?" Dominic asked, also floored by the object's size.

"I don't know. It must've been horrible." RJ added now wrapping gauze around Casey's hand.

"Okay, so what now?" Lily asked walking next to RJ. Fran left to give the rangers some privacy. She hugged Dominic on her way out.

"Well, I was able to remove the stinger and most of the venom from his hand, but there's no way I can get the venom that's already in his bloodstream, at least not at the moment." RJ sadly said.

"So…?" Dominic asked with curiosity.

"So, I give him this I.V. It should fight off the most of the effects of the venom in his bloodstream, but if it took away enough of his life force…"RJ trailed off. The others knew exactly what he meant and Lily felt sick.

"What do we do now?" Lily cried.

"We defeat Waspee. We just have to hope he hangs on long enough for us to do so." RJ said looking over at his fallen comrade.

"And if he doesn't?" Lily asked with hesitation.

RJ didn't answer; he just looked at the floor silently. _That_ was Lily's answer. He looked at her slowly afraid about the way she was going to react.

"What?! No, this can't happen!!" She shouted with tears in her eyes. "We have to find Waspee!" she screamed then began to try and rush out of the loft. RJ grabbed her by the shoulders and turned her to face him.

"Lily, you can't go alone and risk ending up like him. Our only option is to wait for him to surface—and he will." RJ told her forcefully. He was trying to calm her down before she hyperventilated.

"Well, what do we do until then, sit around and stare at the walls?!" she yelled.

"No!" RJ said grabbing her arms to calm her. "We wait her by Casey's side and be here for him!" he yelled to her. He felt bad for raising his voice to her, even if it was to help her. He sighed and looked at her once more and spoke in a gentler voice. "He chose this path, Lily, knowing full well this would happen. All we can do is support him and do all we can to save him."

Lily looked over at Casey through her tears. He _did_ do this to himself—for her.

"I'm sorry, RJ." She said closing her eyes. "I just feel so…lost."

Theo and Dominic walked beside her and each placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Then we'll help you find yourself again." Dominic told her sweetly.

"Yeah, you're not alone in this. Casey's our friend too and we'll do all we can to make sure he returns to normal." Theo added.

"Thanks you guys." Lily sniffled and RJ released her arms. She walked over to where Casey laid and grabbed his hand that was wrapped heavily in gauze and held it close to her. She leaned down next to his face and hoped that wherever he was, he'd know she was there.

"Listen to me, Casey." She said looking at his sleeping face. "I've got something really important that I have to tell you. Something I _have_ to tell you. You'll pull through this—I'll make sure of it. You saved my life, now it's time for me to save yours. And I will…I promise." She said as she gently pushed his hair back and kissed him on the forehead.

RJ walked up behind her and rubbed one of her shoulders. "It's late. You should get some rest. I'll call you if anything changes." He said softly.

Lily just nodded in response, never stopping looked at him. Her eyes stung as she fought to keep her tears at bay. A few stray ones fell, but she wiped them away. Dominic, RJ and Theo all looked at her with sympathy.

"You know where to find us if you need anything." Theo told her sweetly.

Dominic stood back and was being silent. It was as if something had shaken him to his very core.

"Thanks. I'll see you all in the morning." Lily said sadly. She kissed Casey's head once more, then headed up to her room.

"Damn…" RJ said softly as he lightly punched the table beside him.

"She'll be okay. We'll make sure of it." Theo said with determination. Lily was like his sister and he hated that she was feeling a pain that he couldn't fix.

Dominic seemed in his own world. He stared blankly ahead with a scared look on his face.

"Something that matter, Dom?" RJ asked, looking at him with concern.

Dominic snapped out of it when he heard his name. "Oh, yeah. It's just been a long day." He answered.

"Sure has." Theo added running his fingers through his hair.

Dominic rubbed his hands against his face then looked to his friends. "I'm, uh, going to go for a drive. I'll be back in a little while." He told them, making his way for the door grabbing a white jacket along the way.

"Okay. Drive safe." RJ told him before he was gone.

"Thanks." Dominic replied. Then he rushed out of the loft.

Dominic left Jungle Karma and hopped into his white mustang. Orange flames shot across the sides of it. He drove quickly to Fran's house. He had to see her despite how late it was. When he made it to her home, he ran out of his car and banged loudly on her door. He saw a light flicker on insider her house and then the door opened and there was Fran.

"Dom?" she asked groggily. Her hair was messy and Dominic could tell that he woke her. "What are you doing here?" she asked looking at her watch. "It's two a.m."

Dominic ignored her question. He just grabbed her and began to passionately kiss her. After a few moments, she pulled away from him.

"Dom, where's this coming from?" she asked looking at him strangely.

Dominic sighed as he leaned against the doorframe. He rubbed his face with his hands to get his bearings. Then he turned to her, "I'm sorry. I just had to see you." He told her.

Fran stepped outside with him and closed the green door behind her. "Is everything okay?" she asked with concern.

"More or less. This whole ordeal with Casey and Lily really got me to thinking. It made me realize that in one second, anything can happen, and you didn't tell the one you cared for most how you felt about them." He said looking in her eyes.

Fran just looked at his sad face. She knew that he deeply cared about Casey and Lily and he was expressing his worry in his own way. "Dominic, I'm sure Casey will be fine—" she began.

"Fran, I love you!" he blurted out.

"What?" she asked with surprise.

"I'm sorry I just blurted it out like that, I just wanted you to know how I feel about you." He said feeling embarrassed about how he handled this.

"Wow." Fran said softly while staring ahead.

"Look, I didn't mean to pressure you or anything. I just—" he began.

"I love you too, Dominic." She said sweetly with a smile.

"Really?" he asked with a huge smile across his face.

"More than you could ever know." She said looking square in his eyes.

Dominic felt on cloud nine. He lifted her up and hugged her as tight as he could. He never wanted to let her go. But eventually he placed her back on the ground and the two smiled lovingly at one another.


	14. Lily's Faded Smile

Later that night, Waspee finally made it back to Dai Shi's temple. He staggered through the temple doors coughing forcefully. Dai Shi looked at the insect from his throne with a strange glance.

"Yuck!! I hate that horrible smoke!" Waspee said coughing again.

Dai Shi stood from his throne and descended the stairs in front of him. He walked over to Waspee and grabbed him by the armor pulling him up to his dace.

"What's going on you pathetic insect?" he asked evilly.

"Whoa, whoa! Calm down Dai Shi! I know this looks bad, but I actually have great news!"

Dai Shi threw the insect off of him. "Spit it out!" he shouted.

"You know how I was able to infect the Red Ranger with my venom?" Waspee asked.

"Get to the point vermin!" Dai Shi sneered back at him.

"Well, it finally took its toll." Waspee continued confidently.

"What're you saying?" Dai Shi asked as a large smile spread across his face.

"Let's just say that he's out of commission, and won't pose as a problem any more." Waspee explained while walking around the room happily.

"Really?" Dai Shi asked with intrigue as he headed back to his throne. "You may not be as incompetent as I thought." He added leaning back.

"And what's more is that most of the city has fallen to me as well!!" Waspee cheered.

"Hmm…" Dai Shi said as he thought over what he had just heard. "Congratulations there Waspee. You've really done well. Now if you could just get rid of the other rangers."

"Shouldn't be a problem!" Waspee said with a salute then turned to leave. "I just gotta hope that they ran out of that smoke." He said quietly to himself, and then he was gone.

"Can you believe that?" Dai Shi asked although no one appeared to be in the room.

Then Camille made herself appear from the wall. She was using her invisible powers this whole time. "No, not really. Do you really think he'll be able to handle the other rangers?" she asked standing beside him.

"Who knows?" Dai Shi said standing to leave. "What matters is that he defeated the Tiger Master. That's all that really matters to me." He said walking for the exit.

"Dai Shi?" Camille called out to him, making him stop.

Dai Shi stopped upon hearing her, but didn't turn around. "What?" he asked with annoyance.

"Why do you hate the red one so much?" She asked.

Dai Shi started walking again as he spoke. "Why not?" he growled, and then left the room as well.

Camille folded her arms. "Hmm…" she thought. "Since he hates Red Ranger so much, I'm sure he'd be pleased if I preyed on his little sweet heart." She said evilly, then turned herself invisible once more.

The next day, Fran and the rangers headed back to work at JKP. They tried desperately not to focus on the fact that one of them was missing, and another was emotionally stressed. Very few customers were there that day, so the workload was a light one. RJ and Lily made pizzas in the kitchen. He felt it best for him to be the one closest to her just in case she had another breakdown. Theo ran the register, and Dominic and Fran bused the tables and served the customers.

While he and Lily made the pizzas, RJ could tell that she was far off in thought. Her eyes were red from crying so much and her smile she usually had was long gone. She was just going through the motions, not focusing at all on what she was doing. RJ just looked at his sad student. He watched her as she used the rolling pin against some dough over and over again. She stared blankly ahead while her mind wandered.

"Are you okay, Lily?" he asked looking at her with concern.

Lily jumped when he spoke to her. She was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't even realize he was even there. She continued to roll the dough faster. "Yeah, fine. Why?" she asked with a phony smile.

"Well, for one thing if you roll out that dough any more we'll have a pancake pizza." He joked.

Lily looked down to see that she had flattened out the dough so much it was almost gone. She sighed and threw the dough forcefully in the trash. She grabbed another ball of dough and slammed it on the rolling board and began to try again. "Sorry, RJ. I was just thinking." She said sadly.

RJ gently grabbed her wrist to make her stop rolling. "Tell me what's one your mind." He said to her sweetly.

"I'm just thinking about something Casey told me before he…" she trailed off.

"Right. What was is it?" he asked.

"He made me promise him that I'd stay away from Waspee. I don't know if I can do that." She said looking to him.

"Why not?" RJ asked.

Lily pounded the table with her fist. "Because I want to destroy him! I want to make him feel as bad as he made Casey and all of those innocent people feel!" she shouted.

RJ placed his hand on her arm again to try and calm her. "Shh…it's okay. That's why we're a team. Dom, Theo and I can handle Waspee. Maybe you should just focus on feeling better yourself right now. But if you want to fight with us, you can. I'm not saying that you should or shouldn't break your promise, but this is about what _you_ feel is right." He explained to her. "Casey just made you promise him that to protect you." He said with a sigh.

"I know." Lily said softly. "I want to keep my promise to him so badly, but I feel like I could really help. He just…means so much to me." She admitted, hanging her head.

"I know." RJ said. "You mean a lot to him too. "Go upstairs and be with him. I'll handle things down here."

"I can't just leave you down here to do all of this by yourself." She said.

"I got it. The others will help me if I need it. Besides, the customer rate has dropped." He insisted. "Please."

Lily smiled at him. "You're so sweet, RJ. Thank you." She said as she removed her apron, then walked to the other side of the counter and hugged him. "You're a great friend."

"Right back at ya, dudette." He chuckled. Then Lily headed up the stairs to see Casey. And RJ headed back to his work, but he still worried that this could only get worse and he'd have no idea how Lily would react. "Come on, Casey…" he said softly to himself. "You have to beat this. Lily won't be able to handle it if you don't."


	15. Disappointment

Lily walked up the stairs slowly. She almost didn't want to go up there. She was afraid that she would go up there and he'd be gone. But she forced herself onward. When she made it up there she just stopped when she saw him, it made her sad. There he was just lying there with an I.V. in his arm and a very injured hand. At least she knew that the I.V. was trying to get the venom out of his system.

She walked over to him and was sad to see that he still looked very pale. Dark circles rested underneath his eyes. He barely looked like the Red Ranger. Lily pulled up a stool so that she could sit next to him.

"Oh, Casey." She sighed sadly upon looking at him further. She grabbed his arm and held it close to her. "Please come back. I need you here with me. I can't handle any of this without you." She said as her voice began to crack. She looked to the side for a brief moment to attempt to stop her tears, but as soon as she looked back at him, they fell from her eyes anyway. She stroked his head with her hand gently, pushing his hair away from his eyes. "Why do you always have to protect me? Why do you risk your life for me?" she asked him. Of course he didn't answer, and she knew he wouldn't deep down. His chest just rose and fell slowly as he breathed. "I just want to go back to that moment we had on the balcony—when we kissed. I'd never been so happy in my life. And dancing with you was like a dream." She said wiping a tear away from her cheek. "I want to dance with you again, Casey." She told him. Then she laid her head against his chest to snuggle with him. She put her arms around him determined to let him know she was there.

Back downstairs in the restaurant, Theo, RJ, Dominic and Fran continued their work. Dominic looked at Fran from across the room as he wiped off a table and winked at her. Fran giggled as she swept the floors. Then RJ busted through the kitchen doors juggling three large pizzas in his hands. Theo ran over to him quickly and took one off his hands.

"RJ, what're you doing carrying all this?" Theo asked.

"And where's Lily? I thought she was helping you?" Fran added as she looked around for her friend.

"Lily," RJ sighed, "Lily needs to be alone with Casey right now." He said placing the pizzas in boxes.

"Why? Did something go wrong with Casey?" Dominic asked.

"No, she's just so distraught about everything that happened with him that she lost her focus." RJ said with a sad look.

"Man, this really hit her hard, didn't it?" Theo stated as he hopped to sit on the counter.

"She just needs time to get all of her emotions together. We just have to be here for her." RJ told them.

"And we will be." Fran said confidently. "Gosh, I couldn't imagine being in Lily's position, with the man I love hovering between life and death." She said. A chill came over her at the mere thought of that. She looked at Dominic who smiled at her.

"I guess she really is in love with him. I knew she liked him but I didn't know she'd fallen for him. Poor Lily." Theo said hanging his head.

RJ was silent for a moment. He didn't know that Lily loved him either. But he knew how Casey felt about her from what he said that day in the park:

"I think I may be in love with Lily but I'm horrified to tell her."

Upon remembering this RJ shut his eyes tightly and heaved a heavy sigh. "Oh, Lily…" he said sadly. He hated that she could be losing the one she loved especially when they haven't told one another yet.

Before the others could say anything else, their Morphers beeped to alert them of an attack.

"Great. More trouble." Dominic scoffed looking at his bracelet Morpher.

Theo hopped from the counter with a mad look on his face. "Let's finish this."

RJ ran behind the counter to grab his smoke pistol he had used on the night of the dance. It may not be as useful this time, but it was worth a try. "Let's go!" He shouted.

With that, the four rangers all ran out of JKP to handle the wasp.

"Good luck, rangers." Fran said softly as she watched them leave.

Upstairs, Lily just listened to Casey's light, rhythmic breathing as she held him close to her. She jumped when she heard the alarms blare and RJ's TVs flick on. She looked over to see Camille on the screens.

"Camille?" she said out loud.

Camille was wandering about on the beach in her Phoenix Armor, which meant this wouldn't be an easy battle. "Come and fight me Yellow Ranger! I know that you promised not to fight Waspee, but that doesn't mean you don't have to fight _me_!" she said with a cackle.

Lily stood from her stool and looked down at Casey. "Don't worry, Casey…I'll be back." She said whether he might have heard her or not.

She grabbed her vine that hung from the ceiling and swung out of the hole in the wall that lead into the city.

She morphed upon her arrival, and when she made it there, she saw Camille standing there.

"So, you decided to come and fight me after all. Never thought you'd leave your boy toy's side. How _is_ he by the way?" she said taunting her. She preyed on Lily's emotions and that only made her madder.

"What do you want, Camille? I'm really not in the mood to deal with you right now." Lily said.

"All the more reason I wanted a battle. Are you sure you're ready for this? What'll you do without your little hero here to save you?" she said snidely.

"Shut up, Camille!" Lily shouted at her.

"Make me!" she retaliated extending her daggers.

"You asked for it." Lily said angrily. "Jungle Master Mode!!" she screamed barring her Claw weapon. "You're going down, Camille!" she added getting into a fighting stance.

"Ha! Don't make me laugh!" Camille scoffed.

Then the Cheetah and the Chameleon ran at one another full speed. Lily's claw and Camille's daggers clanged loudly against one another, creating sparks. When Camille had a hold on the claw with her two daggers, Lily spun to try and kick her in the face. Camille promptly back flipped to dodge this. Lily growled in frustration. She ran the claw against a nearby boulder in preparation to strike her, but Camille leapt high in the air, once again dodging. Camille tried to attack by swinging her daggers forcefully; Lily back jumped using her jets to get more distance. As she descended, she slashed Camille hard in the abdomen with her claw. Camille staggered backwards clutching her stomach.

"I told you I wasn't in the mood for this!" Lily yelled resting the claw on her shoulder.

"You'll pay for that!!" Camille snapped and ran back at her once more. She swiped her daggers at Lily's feet, making her land on her back. Camille pinned her into the sand. The sheer force of it all made Lily demorph. "You can't defeat me Yellow Ranger! You'll pay for your ignorance!!" she shouted bringing one dagger down and slashing it across Lily's left arm. She cried out loudly from the strike, panting softly and whimpering. She shouldn't have come here. RJ was right—her mind was somewhere else. "That oughta teach you!" Camille yelled down at her, and then rose to her feet. Lily remained on the ground cradling her arm. "Looks like the Red Ranger couldn't protect you after all." She snickered as she teleported back to the temple.

Lily groaned as she sat up. Her arm was badly bleeding and would need stitches. She sighed at her defeat and hung her head. She winced as she stood and walked slowly back to the loft. She never remembered being more disappointed in herself.


	16. The Final Buzz

After a little while of wiping tables and serving hungry customers, Fran decided to go up to the loft and check on Lily. When she made it up there she panicked when she didn't see her. She ran over to RJ's TVs, but didn't see anything.

"Lily?" she called out, walking around the room. "Lily, where are you?!" when she didn't get an answer she bolted back over to the TVs to contact the others, but before she did, she heard someone on the stairs.

"Is that you, Lily?" she said out loud while she ran to the stairs.

Lily emerged from the staircase holding her arm, it was bleeding pretty badly and she didn't seem too happy.

"Oh, my gosh! What happened to you?! I thought you were up here with Casey!" Fran shouted as she ran to a cabinet and pulled out a medical kit.

Lily sat down in RJ's chair to rest. "I-I was up here with him. Then I saw Camille on the monitors. I figured you and the others had enough to worry about. That's why I didn't say anything." Lily explained.

Fran came up to her and poured peroxide on her arm. Lily bit her lip to keep from screaming. "Sorry!" Fran said quickly. "You should have told someone that you were leaving." She continued as she wrapped gauze around her arm.

"I thought this was the only way I could help Casey. Since I said I would stay away from Waspee, I didn't think Camille would matter. I guess I was wrong." She said hanging her head sadly.

"Lily," Fran said getting down to her level. "You _are_ helping him, just by being here."

"RJ said the same thing." Lily admitted. After a moment she looked back over to Casey. "How is he?" she asked.

"Far as I know, there's been no change." Fran said sadly. "Sorry."

"I figured as much." She said standing. "Well, thanks for bandaging me up Fran. I'm going to go and tell RJ what happened so I can get my punishment over with." She continued with a sigh.

Fran stood quickly to stop her. "Oh, you can't. They were called into action a little while ago."

"What?!" Lily exclaimed. She darted over to RJ's TVs and used a remote to turn them on. There she saw Theo, RJ and Dominic all engaged in a battle with Waspee. She turned to Fran with a worried look. "What do we do know?" she asked.

Fran shrugged. "I really don't know."

In the Ocean Bluff forest, RJ, Theo and Dominic all stood before Waspee. Their brightly colored ranger uniforms shone brightly in the light.

"Ah, rangers, so we meet again!" Waspee laughed as he pranced around. "But I can't help noticing that your numbers are dwindling." He laughed.

RJ stepped forward and got in a fighting stance. "We're here to stop all of this once and for all!" he shouted.

"We're going to make sure you pay for all that you've done!" Theo interjected as he stepped beside RJ.

"You're going to regret messing with us!!" Dominic added as he too stood beside RJ.

"Yawn! I've heard this all before. It's the Power Rangers that are going to be destroyed, not me. As a matter of fact, Camille already handled your little Yellow friend." Waspee told them.

"What?!" Theo exclaimed.

And without skipping a beat, RJ pressed the button alongside his helmet. "Lily? Lily, it's RJ. Are you all right?' he asked.

In the loft, Lily heard her Morpher chirp to alert her that someone was contacting her. She grabbed it from her pocket and held it up to her face.

"RJ?" she asked in confusion.

"Are you okay? Where are you?" he asked.

"I'm fine." She answered. "I had a small run-in with Camille and hurt my arm, but more or less I'm okay. Fran's here and she helped me."

"You're sure?" RJ asked again.

"Yes, just do whatever it takes to save Casey since I can't be there." Then she grew silent for a moment. "I think he's getting worse." She said looking sadly over to him. It scared her because he wasn't breathing as much as he was earlier and more color had left his face.

"Of course." RJ answered, then removed his hand from his helmet.

"Well?" Dominic asked expectantly.

"She's fine. She _did_ have an issue with Camille, but Fran's helping her." RJ said turning to the wasp monster. "We have bigger fish to fry right now."

"Well, I can't say I'm surprised that that Chameleon turned out to be useless. But she doesn't matter, we defeated your leader, and that's good enough for me." Waspee said evilly.

This infuriated the rangers and they all ran at him as fast as they could go. RJ and Theo punched and kicked at him while Dominic slashed his Rhino Blade back and forth at him.

"_This_ is all you've got? You guys are more pathetic than I thought!" Waspee laughed at them. This only fueled the ranger's fury making them attack harder and faster. After a moment, Waspee jumped back. "I know how to handle you." He said lowly. He then flapped his wings at an incredible rate to create the ear-piercing buzz. Like the time before, the rangers were down fast. "Ha ha! Too easy!" he boasted.

"We've got to find a way to stop this buzzing!" RJ yelled with a pained voice with a tight grip on his helmet.

"We have to destroy the source of the noise!" Theo groaned.

Dominic remained silent; he had a tight grip on his head like the others did as he crawled across the floor, his Rhino Blade at hand. When he made it to Waspee, he saw that the noise was coming from his wings rubbing together.

"It's coming from his wings!" Dominic shouted over the noise to his team.

"Do something!" Theo screamed at him.

"Buzz, buzz, buzz, rangers!" Waspee taunted as he danced around at his apparent victory. He didn't notice Dominic closing in on him. Dominic powered up his blade, which glowed a bright orange and in one swift motion he sliced off Waspee's wings. The buzzing finally ended when he did so. The wings fell to the ground and smoked.

"No!!! My beautiful wings! They're gone!!" Waspee cried. The ranger's meanwhile had already made it back to their feet.

"Thanks, Dom." RJ said with relief as he patted his pal on the shoulder.

"Anytime!" Dominic answered proudly.

Waspee turned around to face the rangers holding his wings in his hands. "So, you managed to clip my wings, but I have other ways to destroy you!" he screamed, throwing the wings back on the ground. "You may not feel the venom of my army, but you can still feel the sting!" he added extending his arms, and a small army of his wasps emerging toward them.

"I got this!" Theo announced with a tight grip on his Jungle Tonfa weapon, jumping in front of them. He swung the Tonfa all around, annihilating the wasps on impact. "And that's how it's done Blue Ranger style!" he said proudly resting one Tonfa on his arm.

RJ stepped forward once more. "See! Give up! We can handle all of your tricks! You can't win!" he shouted. He then pulled his pistol weapon from behind him. He pointed right at Waspee. "Surrender so this can stop." He moved slowly closer to the beast.

"Be careful, man!" Theo warned him.

"Yeah, he's tricky!" Dominic added.

By the time RJ made it to him, Waspee was on his knees, looking as if he was in fact going to surrender.

"It's over." RJ stated, lowering the weapon to fire. Waspee punched RJ hard in the gut when he saw an opening causing him to drop the pistol. Waspee quickly grabbed it and then grabbed RJ.

"Let's see how _you_ like getting smoke!" Waspee growled, and then he pulled the trigger releasing the smoke onto RJ. He cried out as the smoke surrounded him. Waspee threw him to the floor. RJ writhed in pain on the ground.

"What's happening to him?" Dominic asked in panic.

"That smoke's made out of venom from Waspee's army." Theo said worriedly.

"I thought our suits protected us!" Dominic shouted in fury.

"It protects us from the venom entering our bloodstream and draining our life force, but it still stings the body." Theo explained.

Waspee then threw the weapon on the ground and smashed it with his foot. He grabbed RJ by the wrist and threw him over to Dominic and Theo who quickly helped him up.

"How's that for a taste of your own medicine!" Waspee bragged.

"Are you all right, RJ?" Theo asked quickly.

"Yeah," RJ answered in a breathless shaky voice. "It'll wear off…in a few…seconds." He winced.

"See, rangers? I'm undefeatable!!" Waspee boasted.

"We gotta do something!" Dominic shouted.

"We can try the Claw Cannon. We'll boost it with the three of our animal spirits, it's worth a try." Theo suggested.

Dominic looked to RJ who he was still helping stand. "Think you can do that, RJ?" he asked.

"Yeah," RJ said softly, "Let's give it a try."

"Claw Cannon!" The three shouted simultaneously as the cannon appeared in their hands. Theo was behind the cannon, RJ was on the left and Dominic was on the right.

"Charged!" Dominic said sliding his hand across the weapon.

"…Charged." RJ said, doing the same.

"Charged!" Theo finished.

"FIRE!" they yelled loudly. Blue, violet and white surges came from the cannon and charged forward. The blast collided with Waspee—hard, but unfortunately he was back on his feet just moments later.

"That didn't do it?" Theo yelled in disgust as he and his team retracted the cannon.

"Something has to hit him just as the blast hits—it the only way." RJ said finally sounding back to his old self again.

"But there's only three of us! We need a fourth!" Dominic yelled in frustration.

"Ha! Looks like you're out of options! What now, rangers!" Waspee laughed.

"How about this!!" A voice called from the distance. And there was Lily leaping on to the scene and kicking Waspee as she descended. Afterwards, she ran over to her friends in her bright yellow uniform.

"Lily, what're you doing here?" RJ asked her.

"You needed help so you got it. Casey won't stand a chance if we don't all work together." Lily explained. "I'll do whatever it takes to save him…and the citizens of Ocean Bluff."

The others couldn't help but smile at her courage.

"Okay." RJ submitted. "You're a strong ranger, Lily, and I'm proud of you."

"Us too." Theo chimed in.

"Then let's save them." Lily said with determination. Then she and her teammates all turned to face the menace.

"So what. So, you have another ranger. You may even be able to save the people of Ocean Bluff, but you can't save your friend even if you defeat me." Waspee warned them.

RJ saw Lily begin to become frantic so he tried to counter Waspee's words even if they were true or not. "We'll see about that!" he roared.

"Claw Cannon!" The Violet, Blue and White rangers yelled summoning the powerful cannon once more.

RJ turned to Lily. "You ready for this?" he asked her.

Lily pulled out her Jungle Bo and twirled it in her hands. "Ready as I'll ever be." She answered.

Once the cannon was charged, the men fired it off yet again. Lily stood beside the cannon as the shot was fired so she would know when to make her move. When it was her turn, she leapt high in the air and descended on Waspee, colliding her weapon with him just as the cannon blast did.

After the attack was finished Waspee turned to stone. "Nooo!!! This can't be!!!" he screamed as he exploded into thousands of rocky pieces. It was finally over—Waspee was gone. Upon his destruction, all of the citizens of Ocean Bluff rose from their slumbers feeling back to normal. The four rangers cheered at their work.

"Yes! We did it!!" Lily celebrated.

"He's finally gone!" Theo added happily as he and the others slapped fives with one another.

"Ocean Bluff is back to normal." RJ said with a sigh of relief.

"Evil loses once again." Dominic cheered.

"Let's go and see Casey!" Lily said eagerly.

As the rangers ran to check on their friend, Camille appeared as if from nowhere before the rangers.

"Well, well, looks like you stopped Dai Shi's little pest after all. And with the help of the Yellow Ranger too, I thought you'd still be reeling from our last battle. You recover quick." Camille said with her arms folded as she scanned the area around her.

Lily stepped forward. "Enough of this, Camille! I'm sick and tired of you and your trouble making!" she shouted.

"Ooh, tough words coming from the ranger I just crushed." Camille laughed.

Dominic walked next to Lily. "Don't you have some mirrors to shatter with that ugly face if yours, Camille."

"Oh, that hurt." Camille said sarcastically. "You're really making me want to cry." She went on.

"We don't have the time for this! We have places to be! Ready guys?" RJ asked his team. The others knew what he had in mind as they all formed the Claw Cannon. Lily, Theo and Dominic all held the weapon as RJ stood at it's side with his Wolf Morpher open and ready.

"Uh-oh.." Camille said softly to herself as she turned to make a getaway. "I thought they couldn't use the Claw Cannon without the Red Ranger!"

"FIRE!!" The four rangers yelled simultaneously as they fired the weapon they held. A large mass of energy flew through the air and nailed Camille in the back.

"That got her!" Theo yelled happily.

Camille writhed on the ground and shot the rangers an evil glance.

"Where's the though talk _now_ Camille?" Lily asked as she walked closer to her.

"Dai Shi is _not_ going to be happy…" She said nervously to herself, and then teleported away.

"Yes, we did it! Now to check on Casey!" RJ said as he and his team ran off.

"I'm right behind you!" Lily answered with relief in her voice. She was no longer ashamed of herself—Camille got what she deserved.


	17. Ranger Romance

Camille hesitantly made her way back into the temple. She had to use the walls around her as leverage due to the ranger's attack on her. When she made it to the throne room, she saw Dai Shi going head-to-head with ten Rin Shi warriors. He stopped fighting them for a moment when he saw her enter.

"Camille, you're back. Where's Waspee? Did he finish off the rangers?" he asked in a scary tone.

Camille's throat felt dry as she began to speak. "Um…N-no—no." she stammered.

Dai Shi felt his eyes grow wide with anger. "And what happened to you?" he seethed at her.

"The rangers defeated me t-too." She said shakily.

Dai Shi didn't speak. All he did was let out a roar so intense that it shook the walls around them and defeated all ten Rin Shi that surrounded him.

"That's what I thought you'd say…" Camille said with a face full of fear. She knew that she was going to have to pay for both her and Waspee's action. Whether it be cleaning the entire temple with a toothbrush, or waiting on her master hand and foot. She gave a weak chuckle after he had his outburst.

As soon as the rangers made it back to JKP, they darted up the stairs. When they made it there, they saw Fran with a weird look on her face and she was surprisingly silent.

"Fran, Fran!" Lily shouted as she cleared the stairs. She ran over to Casey's beside and was shocked to see that he was still unconscious. "Casey?" she said with confusion as she grabbed his hand. "Casey, wake up. Waspee is gone." When she didn't get an answer, she felt panic fill her body. She quickly turned to RJ. "RJ…why isn't he waking up?" she asked shakily.

RJ got a concerned look on his face and ran to place two fingers against Casey's neck. He felt nothing. He felt his eyes grow wide.

"What? RJ, what is it?" Lily asked.

RJ just stared at Casey as he took a few steps back. "He's…gone." He said softly in disbelief.

"What?! You said if we defeated Waspee he'd be okay? Why isn't he okay?" Lily yelled frantically.

"I guess his Tiger spirit tried to fight off the effects of the venom, making it drain more of his life force than the others." RJ said sadly. He looked at Lily with horrified eyes. "Lily, I'm so sorry."

Lily's eyes began to flood with tears, her voice cracked as she spoke. "No! No, this isn't happening! I won't believe he's dead!" she cried.

Dominic looked over to see Fran crying softly, she knew before anyone that he was gone and was horrified herself. Dominic walked over to her and took her in his arms.

RJ ran his fingers through his hair. "There may be one way to save him." He said with hesitation.

Lily looked up at him quickly. "What? There is?" she asked.

"But there's no guarantee that it will work, Lily." RJ said weakly.

"But we have to try! We have to do whatever it takes! Please, RJ, tell me what we can do!" she pleaded as she ran over to him and grabbed his violet jacket.

"RJ sighed heavily. "Alright." He submitted patting her shoulders.

"Thank you, RJ." Lily spoke hugging him tightly.

"What do we have to do?" Theo asked stepping forward.

RJ walked over to Casey and looked down at him. "We…each have to contribute a part of our animal spirits to restore _his_ animal spirit." RJ explained. He looked to his team. "Are you all up for that?" he asked.

"Well I know I'm in." Dominic said stepping forward.

"Me too." Theo added stepping up as well.

Lily walked over to them and gave them a look of gratitude. "I don't know how to thank you guys." She said looking at them.

Theo and Dominic nodded at her and she mustered up a smile.

"Let's do this then just…don't get your hopes up." RJ said sadly. Then he and the others all gathered around Casey's bedside. "All you have to do is close your eyes and call on your animal spirit." RJ explained and then he and his friends all placed their hands at their sides and began to summon their spirits. They each began to glow their ranger colors.

"Spirit of the Wolf." RJ said as a small violet wolf appeared above him.

"Spirit of the Jaguar." Theo called out while a blue jaguar hovered above.

"Spirit of the Rhino." Dominic said as a white rhino appeared above him.

"Spirit of the Cheetah." Lily called out with determination, with everything in her. Then a yellow cheetah spirit took its place above her.

There, around Casey, were the four animal spirits of his friends. The rangers instructed their spirits to flow into Casey. The Wolf, Jaguar, Rhino and Cheetah spirits all sank into his chest. He glowed as each spirit made its entrance.

Afterwards, the four rangers all opened their eyes expectantly to see if what they had done worked.

"Well, did we do it?" Dominic asked looking down at his friend.

A few moments passed by and nothing happened. RJ hung his head low. He really wished that he never mentioned this method. He knew that the chances of it working were very low, but he thought it was worth a try to protect Lily. But now she felt more pain than ever. She just looked down in horror at the Red Ranger, the ranger she loved and began to weep. She just looked at his face, trying to remember all of the good times they had shared. He may be gone, but at least they had that night—that one night.

She was floored when she saw his eyes begin to flicker until they slowly opened. "Casey?" she sniffled, looking at him in shock. The others turned when they heard her words and got huge smiles on their faces.

"Hey, Lily." He said weakly with a small smile.

Lily couldn't hold it in any longer, she had to hug him—and she did. "Oh, Casey! You're alive! I thought we lost you forever!" she cried.

"Hey, I'm the Red Ranger. I don't go down _that_ easily. Especially when I have friends like the four of you." Casey said.

RJ walked up to him and gave him a fist bump. "You gave us quite a scare my man."

"Just trying to keep it interesting." Casey joked.

"Well, we're going to let you get some rest. And I'm sure you and Lily have a lot to talk about." Dominic said as he herded everyone downstairs. He looked over at Lily and winked. She winked back knowing that this was the moment she'd been waiting for and how Dominic was so kind as to let them have this moment.

"Hey, Lily…" Casey said taking her hand in his.

She looked over at him sweetly. "What is it?" she asked.

"I know that you've been through a lot these past couple days and I know I'm the cause. I…just wanted to say that I'm sorry for anything I may have put you through." He said.

"What're you talking about? _You're_ the one who saved _me_. And I'm very grateful to have a hero like you by my side." She said brushing his hair back. "Just tell us if you have a problem from now on so we can help you—no matter what threats they make. We're a team, we'll figure out a solution." She said sweetly.

"Yeah. I know that now. Lily…" he began.

"Hmm?" she said looking at him, just so happy that he was all right.

"You know how I had something I wanted to tell you at the dance that night?" he asked. Lily nodded at him to answer. "Well…what I wanted to tell you is…that…I love you. And I've loved you pretty much since they day we became rangers." He admitted.

"Really? Wow." She said looking down at the bed.

"What's wrong?" he asked from her sudden change in expression.

"Nothing. I was going to tell you the same thing that night." She said turning and smiling at him. "You mean more to me than anyone and I'm just glad I get to be with you again."

"Me too." He said brushing her hair from her cheek.

Then Lily leaned down and kissed him. He held her close to him as long as he could.

The next day Casey felt well enough to get back to his JKP work. He was happy to be back in his old routine. He and Lily were preparing pizzas in the kitchen while the others handled the business in the dining room. Business was finally back to the way it used to be—crowded. The two were listening to the radio as they worked. Since Casey's hand was still covered in gauze, he mainly rolled out the pizza dough while Lily prepared everything else. When he looked over at her, he noticed that one of her arms had gauze on it like his.

"Lil, I've been meaning to ask you, what happened to your arm?" he asked.

Lily paused and looked at her arm. "Oh, it's nothing. I had a little run in with Camille the other day. I'm fine, after all I have you, _she _has to go home to Dai Shi everyday." She joked as she smiled at him.

Casey stopped rolling the pizza dough and looked sweetly at her. "Thanks for all you did for me, Lily. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you."

Lily looked back at him. "Neither would I." She said sweetly. After all, he was the one who saved her, and she was the one who saved him.

The two shared a romantic smile with one another for a few moments, and then a familiar song came on the radio. They noticed it right away because after all, it _was_ their song. Casey wiped his hands off on his apron and made his way around the counter over to her.

He extended his hand to her like he did on the balcony that night. "How about we have that other dance now?" he said.

"What?" Lily asked in confusion.

"You told me that you wanted to dance with me again, right?" he asked with a sly smile.

"Yeah…but I told you that when you were unconscious." She said wide-eyed. "You heard me?"

Casey took both of her hands in his and looked into her eyes. "Lily, I don't know where I was that whole time, but I knew that you were there with me every step of the way. It's like I felt you there." He told her. "I knew I wasn't alone."

She moved closer into him. "And you never will be." She said.

Then the Red and Yellow rangers began to slow dance. They did that special waltz they did that night right there in the kitchen—in their uniforms, covered in flour, in each other's arms. It was their own little love story.

The End

**A/N: **** I hope you all enjoyed this story; I worked very hard on it. Thanks to all of you who reviewed, and to anyone who put this on any of their alert lists. I love to hear from you all and enjoy reading your reviews. Thanks for reading it! ^_^**


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